Wow! What an election! For South Africans who have become used to and frustrated by the glacial pace of political change, this year’s municipal elections were a blockbuster.
The ANC was pushed to fewer than 50% in every metropolitan municipality in the country, except in Mangaung (Bloemfontein) and Buffalo City (East London), and also failed to breach 50% in every single one of the municipalities in Gauteng, including the three metros.
These are all political developments of historical proportions and will impact our future deeply.
It looks like the DA trod water, replicating its performance from the 2019 general election, but in dropping six percentage points from the previous municipal elections, and with support declining in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay (among others), the party had a poor election, especially given the weak overall turnout.
Two parties who will be delighted with their performance will be the FF Plus and ActionSA. The FF Plus has continued picking up DA votes, especially in Gauteng, in many wards increasing support threefold.
ActionSA, almost two years old, shot the lights out in Johannesburg, and will now be a major player in that city and Tshwane.
And the EFF? Some upwards movement, but it seems as if the party might have hit a ceiling. But the election has also thrown up some important issues: why was turnout so extremely low? Have voters now rejected the political system, or was the stay away a protest vote?
Are we inexorably moving to a genuinely multiparty state, where coalitions will be the dominant governance model?
Pieter du Toit – News24 Assistant editor
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