Elections 2021: Winners, losers and the road to coalitions
The African National Congress (ANC) has suffered massive losses in the 2021 local government elections.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) announced the final results at its national results centre in Tshwane on Thursday evening.
The announcement was the culmination of months of preparations, weeks of campaigning and days of voting.
At least 10,000 councillors will take up seats at 257 municipal councils for the next 5 years.
This includes 8 highly contested metropolitan councils, 44 district councils and 205 local councils.
The elections were contested by a record 325 political parties.
On a national scale, the ANC won control of 116 municipalities, while the Democratic Alliance won control of 13 municipalities and the Inkatha Freedom Party won 10 municipalities.
Three of Gauteng’s big metros will be governed by coalition partnerships after the big parties failed to secure a majority.
The ANC won 38.1% support in Ekurhuleni, 33.6% in Johannesburg, and 34.3% in Tshwane.
The governing party’s support also dropped substantially in eThekwini.
2021 Municipal Elections Results #LGE2021
— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) November 4, 2021
In the eight contested metropolitan councils, the top three parties are: pic.twitter.com/JYpjwi13ly
This while newcomers ActionSA made a big impression with voters in their maiden elections since Herman Mashaba’s breakaway from the DA.
The party amassed 16.05% support in Johannesburg.
The IEC declared this year’s elections free and fair, while President Cyril Ramaphosa applauded the commission for undertaking the mammoth task.
“If we are to make this a new and better era, we, as leaders, must put aside our differences and work together in a spirit of partnership and common purpose. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing: to better the lives of the South African people.
“We need to strengthen the trust between citizens and elected representatives through competence, integrity, performance and delivery.”
Ramaphosa added public representatives will have their work cut out for them.
“They need to focus on implementation and make the people partners in development.”
Coalition talks are expected to begin in earnest as parties grapple with a new reality across the country’s municipalities.
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