By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) has lost its outright majority in the Northern Cape for the first time since the democratic era started in 1994 and will have to enter a coalition with another political party to govern the region.
The ANC obtained 49.34% of votes in the May 29 election compared with 57.5% in 2019, according to the Electoral Commission’s tally.
ANC provincial chairperson, Zamani Saul, said on Friday that they would do an in-depth analysis to see where they went wrong.
He did, however, blame low voter turnout and the perceived political arrogance in the ranks.
Some breakaway members could also not accept the ANC’s renewal agenda and its stance against corruption.
Saul said that the poor performance “was just a little setback” and the party still had the popular mandate and therefore there could only be an ANC government.
He added that the party would recover, strengthen its branches, and look forward to the 2026 municipal elections.
Meanwhile the DA has lodged a complaint about discrepancies at three voting stations in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in the Eastern Cape confirmed on Friday afternoon.
DA’s Eastern Cape chairperson Yusuf Cassim said, the party has lodged objections to the IEC from three voting stations in the Nelson Mandela Bay.
“At the MTR Smit voting station there were 136 DA ballots where the intention of the voter was clear but the presiding officer ruled them as spoilt ballots.
“At a voting station in Sherwood, special votes were in two ballot boxes but they were not counted at all. At the Pieter Rademeyer station in Algoa Park, the presiding officer erroneously forgotten to add the special votes totals to the national and provincial ballots,” said Cassim.
“The objection, by the DA, is that there are a lot of discrepancies at those stations.
“The [DA] said it would like the discrepancies to be investigated so that they can be happy. We will await [the national office] on the objection,” said IEC Eastern Cape electoral officer Kayakazi Magudumana.
Elsewhere, the EFF was seen arguing with the IEC Western Cape head Michael Hendrickse about 100 of the party’s votes not being captured.
“We have raised issues with facts. Remember, during the day, the EFF, they stole one hundred votes.”
The NCC’s provincial chair Dawayne Jacobs echoed the EFF’s sentiments, saying they had taken steps to lay complaints about the voting process.