South African Local Elections: ANC Suffers Major Setback

[Webster]

BBC News: South Africa local elections - ANC suffers major setback

South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) has suffered its worst electoral setback since apartheid ended in 1994.

With 94% of the votes counted after Wednesday's municipal elections, the party has lost the key battleground of Nelson Mandela Bay to the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

The two parties are in a close fight for Johannesburg and Pretoria. But the ANC is still in the lead nationally, with 54% of the vote.

The ANC has won more than 60% of the vote at every election since the end of apartheid more than two decades ago.

Unemployment and corruption scandals surrounding President Jacob Zuma have tarnished the ANC's image.

Named after ANC liberation hero and South Africa's first democratically elected president, the loss of Nelson Mandela Bay is a big blow to the party.

Many of the leaders of the struggle against apartheid come from the area.

The DA, which took 46.5% compared to the ANC's 41%, says it is in talks with other parties to form a coalition in the municipality on South Africa's southern coast.

The ANC has conceded defeat in Nelson Mandela Bay after initially saying it was going to challenge the result. "Of course we have had setbacks in areas like the Nelson Mandela Bay but we are magnanimous in victory and also magnanimous in defeat because we are democrats," private broadcaster ENCA quoted ANC's chief whip Jackson Mthembu as saying.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the Nelson Mandela Bay had voted for change. "I think that to me says that our message got through - it says our people heard us and South Africans still believe in a dream of a non-racial South Africa, South Africans still want our country to prosper," he said.

The BBC's Nomsa Maseko says as it looks like no party will win an outright majority in the economic hubs of Johannesburg or Tshwane, and coalition negotiations are already underway.

-Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36985339

 

[Webster]

*looks around* @DaveM , you're from South Africa...how has the media been reporting the elections thus far? For that matter, what has the public reaction been?

 

[DaveM]

Well living in Nelson Mandela Bay it was a huge relief to finally boot the ANC out of our city. So for one it was a huge event for the DA to win this area as the news report have mentioned. This area is seen as very much being the ANC birthplace if you could call it that, so losing it should have been a huge wakeup call for then but the arrogant don't care attitude they took over losing it just shows that it is all about let us see how we can rape the system and nothing else matter.

Over these last couple of years the ANC is just doing what they want right in the peoples faces as far as corruption goes and basically in a way as to say so yes we did that and we know there is nothing you can do about it. The cultural aspect of the people supporting them is one of the main issues as they feel that they have to vote ANC after all it was the ANC that save them from the white regime. They also fully believe as told by the ANC that if the DA comes into power apartheid will be brought back. So overall it is very sad to see these people just blindly following the ANC and then being worse off for it.

We did not expect the ANC to loose and expected them to remain in power but they are now losing ground and becoming weaker and this is a start for all South Africans.

 

[Webster]

BBC News: ANC Loses In Capital Pretoria

South Africa's governing African National Congress has been defeated by the opposition Democratic Alliance in local polls in the capital Pretoria.

The DA took 43% of the vote compared with the ANC's 41% in Tshwane, the municipality that includes Pretoria. The DA will need to form a coalition in order to secure control there.

The two major parties are also locked in a tight race to control the country's largest city, Johannesburg.

The ANC has also lost Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area in the Eastern Cape, which includes Port Elizabeth, to the DA.

-Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36997461

 

[DaveM]

Looks like the people are eventually just fed up with the ANC and it's corrupt ways. What can you expect if the president is one of the worst of the lot of them.

These were all dropped when he was still pending to become president of SA and who know how many hundred more he has accumulated since he has been president of SA

Source - http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/...b-zuma-corruption-appeal-160624174719894.html

Ledwaba had in April ordered a review of a 2009 decision by the NPA to drop 783 corruption charges against Zuma, which he described in his ruling as "irrational". That decision by the NPA allowed Zuma to run for president the same month.