21 hung municipalities in KZN, parties enter coalition talks
With the local elections behind us, the political legwork now begins as parties seek to close the gap in 21 hung municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, including in eThekwini.
In an election declared free and fair by the Independent Electoral Commission, the ANC has achieved a majority in 161 municipalities across the country - compared to 158 in 2016. The DA took 13 municipalities and the IFP 10.
The ANC's Fikile Mbalula's accepted the party's poor performance in Monday's polls, saying it comes down to trust.
"We need to narrow the gap in terms of the trust deficit. It is there, people told us in Soweto we will vote but we know on Wednesday you will disappear. We became visitors among our people instead of becoming residents.
"We need to change that, if we don't change that we will be history and perish like the greatest liberation movements in other countries. So the ANC can't and will never perish because from here on we build the momentum."
The governing party suffered a major blow in eThekwini, meaning a coalition government will run the municipality.
After 100% of the votes counted, it claimed 42%, followed by the DA at 25% and EFF at 10%.
The IFP's gains in KwaZulu-Natal saw the party enjoy majorities in Umsinga, Ulundi and Nkandla.
An outright DA majority was expected in Cape Town, but there was a dip in support for the party, which garnered a safe 58% of the vote.
"What this is going to be remembered for is a historic milestone in South African's democracy because for the very first time the ANC has fallen below 50 percent," says party leader John Steenhuisen.
"It now clearly says the political landscape has shifted and that it is possible to being the ANC below 50% across the length and breath of South Africa."
Three of Gauteng's big metros will be governed by coalition partnerships after the big parties failed to secure an outright majority. These include Johannesburg and Tshwane.
Speaking at the release of the final results on Thursday night, Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo says the polls were the most technologically advanced elections ever held in the country.
He says the use of the VMDs, connected to all voting stations, helped avoid claims of double voting.
"The commission deployed 30 387 Voter Management Devices which were centrally connected though an access point network.
"These digital connections enabled the strengthening of controls in the voting process. Once ballots were issued to the voter they could not present themselves as another station without detection."
