ANC shaken, South Africa stirred
Saturday night the final results of South Africa’s fourth democratic local government elections were released by the country’s Independent Electoral Commission and accepted by all parties. On the face of it, the results seem very much in line with what a casual and occasional observer of politics in Africa’s only industrialised economy would expect: the former liberation movement African National Congress (ANC) got 62% of the overall vote, the Official Opposition and long-standing FNF partner, the liberal Democratic Party (DA) 24%.
Except that by Sunday morning, and having had a chance to digest and crunch the numbers, every single South African newspaper ran headlines like: ‘ANC wins, but…’ , ‘ANC feathers ruffled’ and ‘ANC is left shaken’. ‘Well,’ quipped Helen Zille, the Democratic Party’s (DA) leader on national TV adding insult to the ANC’s injury ‘if President Zuma is right and the ANC will govern until Jesus comes back, he might be coming back sooner than anyone thought.’
What happened?
Read the report South Africa’s local government elections: ANC shaken, South Africa stirred by Barbara Groeblinghoff
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