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ANC looks on the bright side

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The ANC is looking on the bright side.

The party said that its drop of majority support in the metros in the local government elections was a reflection of a maturing democracy. 

It also said that overall so far they have achieved a record 15 million votes.

In the municipal elections in 2011, the ANC said it secured 8.1 million votes in total. However, they are not comparing apples with apples, as this is the number of voters, whereas the 15 million for 2016 is the number of votes cast so far — with voters casting more than one ballot in local elections. 

ANC elections head Nomvula Mokonyane said those who wished to “speak ill of the ANC” and to criticise President Jacob Zuma were not recognising the overall growth in support.

“As we speak now, of about 148 municipalities, the ANC has taken over 138,” she said in an interview on the floor of the IEC Results Operations Centre earlier today. 

“That also indicates that we have more than 4300 ANC councillors across the length and breadth of South Africa.” 

She said this was achieved with Zuma as president and denied that these elections were about the president, but about the delivery of services and the relationship that communities had with their councillors. 

She said the shifts in the metros were a sign of democracy at work. 

“There is more diversity and choice in urban metros. That is where you find ordinary South Africans have got a plethora of parties to choose from.” 

She said: “Yes we would want to be in charge of every metropolitan council, but we are happy we haven’t lost everything and results are not all in. 

“The fact is that the ANC continues to be a source of hope for the downtrodden. We are not an arrogant party, we are the most listening party,” she said. 

Asked how the ANC would halt the trend downwards in majority support ahead of the 2019 general elections, Mokonyane said the challenge was to drill deeper and look at internal issues. 

“The fact we got 15 million against all odds shows that we are listening. ” 

In a statement earlier today, the ANC also focused on the overall growth in voters and overall majority of 54% thus far. “While we have received overwhelming support from our people, we will reflect and introspect where our support has dropped. As counting continues, the numbers show that the ANC is leading in all the country’s nine provinces, barring the Western Cape,” said the ANC’s Zizi Kodwa. 

In the 2011 local elections, the ANC got 62% of the vote. 

* This article was updated on August 6 to clarify the number of ballots vs the number of voters.

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