ANC falls below 50% in Mogale City

5 August 2016

Pretoria - The ANC has dipped under the 50% mark for the first time in Gauteng’s Mogale City, according to the IEC’s final vote count for the area released on Friday.

The ANC won 48.84% of the vote in the local municipality, west of Johannesburg, which contains towns such as Krugersdorp. Meanwhile, the DA won 34.88%, the EFF 11.65%, the FF Plus 2.29% and the IFP 0.71%.

Subsequently, the ANC would have 38 seats, the DA 27, the EFF 9 and the IFP one seat in the council.

The ANC would have to enter a coalition to run Mogale City, as the party - for the first time ever - failed to secure enough votes in the area.

In 2011, the ANC had 60.36% of the vote in Mogale City, compared to the DA’s 32.89%.

"It's not an open-and-shut case. Surely, there will be a lot of discussion, a lot of horse-trading," News24 analyst Piet Croucamp said.

Negotiations in Mogale City could spark future working relationships among parties in other councils in South Africa, said Croucamp.

"It might be that a party like the EFF or the ANC make promises on the broader picture. They don't always negotiate the council; they also negotiate the bigger picture," he said.

Meanwhile, final results for other Gauteng areas were still trickling in on Friday afternoon.

The DA had 59.7% of the final votes in Midvaal, according to the IEC’s total verified vote count.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.