All the latest news, analysis and results from the 2016 local government elections as it happens. Refresh your browser for the latest updates...
A final summary as the election comes to a close:
It was an election that altered the face of the nation. To be sure, the ANC remained in firm control in more municipalities than anyone else by a long stretch. It took a 54% slice of the national vote - twice that of its nearest rival, the DA with 27% and far more than the EFF's 8%.
But, that was not the whole story. The ANC had shed 8% of its support since 2011 when it got 62%, most of it probably accounted for by the EFF, which was still a twinkle in Julius Malema's eye back then.
The DA rose by three percent since the previous local government election. But it was a targeted three percent concentrated in its Western Cape kingdom and then on three metros - Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Johannesburg which it identified as key battle grounds.
This was the first election the DA fought with a black leader and the jury is still out on whether or not it managed to attract black voters in significant numbers.
But strategy of attacking the ANC in the three metros over its governance record and its president's lack of accountability, paid off.
It wrested Nelson Mandela Bay from the ANC with 47% to the latter's 41%. It was an earth-shattering victory in the city named after the ANC's iconic leader and widely regarded as the epicentre of its Eastern Cape heartland.
Then, by a tighter margin, the DA took Tshwane from the ANC, another body blow to the ruling party. Both the country's capitals are now in opposition hands.
It seemed that the DA was destined to make a clean sweep of the battle grounds until a late ANC resurgence saved Joburg.
It was a loud and crazy election which reaffirmed democracy, but it took place in the shadow of death. As many as 20 councillors and campaigners died in this election, a terrifying statistic which deserves some serious attention. Surely democracy should not exact such a price?
What this election did was to finally find the missing piece of the democratic puzzle - political competition. It is now clear that South Africans are prepared to 'chuck out the bums' as the Americans say, when they think their elected officials are failing them.
The genie is out of the bottle. The old habit of placing the party above all else has begun to melt in the heat of accountability.
What comes next will define this country. The ANC has two short years to turn the tide. Will it finally act to remove the man who has defined ruling party arrogance and who does not respect the constitution, Jacob Zuma? Without taking this step quickly, the party has little hope of re-inventing itself. It is not a long road from 54% to 44% - just ask the dazed and confused ANC leaders in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Also in the wings is the start of a whole new way of governing at local level as several major cities will be ruled by coalitions. Will the politics of negotiation bring new energy to civic affairs or will it lead, Italian-style, to administrative inertia and further decay? It's a cliche, but it really does 'remain to be seen'.
21.10
--------------------------------
And the much-delayed Joburg result is finally in:
ANC: 44.55%
DA: 38.37%
EFF: 11.09%
The ANC pulled this one out the fire, but did dip below 50%.
13.42
---------------------------------------------------
Johannesburg may be about to enter a period of political crisis. The ANC is in the lead with a total of 42.55% of the pie with 91% of the vote counted. But it is the slimmest of leads as the DA has 40.75% and the EFF has 10.75%. The reason that a potential crisis looms is simple. The EFF has made it very clear that it will not enter into a coalition with the ANC.
Even if the ANC were to mop up all the other parties, it would not breach the 50% threshold. It could then decide to go ahead and form a minority government. Such a government would be stymied at every step by the opposition's majority coalition. Budgets would not be passed, council resolutions would be dead before they were proposed and the city could grind to a slow treacle like halt. Just in time for the December heatwave.
The ANC would have to make this difficult choice: I think it has been characterised before as 'Submit or fight'.
13.00
---------------------------------------------------
DA has officially snatched Tshwane from the ANC.
The DA, as leader Mmusi Maimane projected, is the majority party in Tshwane with 43.1%.
Just after 1pm‚ all votes had been counted and the DA led with 43.11% followed by the ANC with 41.22 and the EFF with 11.7%.
This is the first metro in Gauteng to go to the DA in the democratic era of South Africa.
The DA will have to form a coalition however as it has attained the required majority.
Tshwane with 100% of the votes counted:
DA: 43.1%
ANC: 41.22%
EFF: 11.7%
Seats:
DA: 93 seats
ANC: 89 seats
EFF: 25 seats
12.00pm
---------------------------------------------------
Here is the official IEC count just before 12pm on Saturday
GAUTENG with 97% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.2%
DA: 38%
EFF: 11.27%
JOHANNESBURG with 90% reported:
ANC: 42.47%
DA: 40.87%
EFF: 10.71%
TSHWANE with 99% reported:
DA: 43.1%
ANC: 41.23%
EFF: 11.71%
EKURHULENI with 99% reported:
ANC: 48.62%
DA: 34.2%
EFF: 11.23%
11.45am
---------------------------------------------------
Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane has warned that his party is in a good position to govern all the three metros of Gauteng.
Speaking at a press briefing in Tshwane‚ Maimane said all indicators in Tshwane‚ Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg showed that the support of the African National Congress was on a serious decline while the democrats were on an upward trend.
“We await results from Johannesburg but all indicators from our side show that we have shown great growth and also that the ANC has declined to a point that prospectively now they will get about 45% of the votes in Johannesburg…We will look to form some form of coalition government so that we can govern for the people of Johannesburg‚” Maimane said.
11.15am
---------------------------------------------------
ANC Gauteng Chairperson Paul Mashatile says the fact that there is no outright majority in these elections shows that "our democracy is maturing".
ANC and DA have been neck-on-neck in Tshwane and Johannesburg with the DA likely to take the capital city and the ANC taking Johannesburg.
He said that they will be seeking coalitions soon as the official results are announced.
11.00am
---------------------------------------------------
The DA is maintaining its lead over Tshwane with only 1% of the vote left to be counted. In Joburg there's only a one percentage point difference between the two largest parties, making it too close to call.
Here is the official IEC count just before 11am on Saturday
GAUTENG with 96% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.14%
DA: 38.08%
EFF: 11.25%
JOHANNESBURG with 90% reported:
ANC: 42.6%
DA: 41.06%
EFF: 10.74%
TSHWANE with 99% reported:
DA: 43.14%
ANC: 41.2%
EFF: 11.7%
EKURHULENI with 99% reported:
ANC: 48.71%
DA: 34.26%
EFF: 11.26%
10.35am
---------------------------------------------------
The Presidency has confirmed that Jacob Zuma will attend the official announcement of the 2016 Local Government Elections at the National Results Centre in Pretoria.
Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is set to announce the final results this afternoon.
10.20am
---------------------------------------------------
Not much has changed in the National vote count as we slowly approach 100%:
ANC: 53.82%
DA: 27%
EFF: 8.14%
GAUTENG with 96% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.13%
DA: 38.1%
EFF: 11.25%
TSHWANE with 99% of the vote counted:
DA: 43.14
ANC: 41.2
EFF: 11.7
JOBURG with 90% of the vote counted:
ANC: 42.29%
DA: 41.1%
EFF: 10.65%
9.40am
---------------------------------------------------
It's now mathematically impossible for the ANC to pull ahead of the DA in Tshwane. But Joburg, where the pace of counting is slower, is still in play.
TSHWANE with 99% of the vote counted:
DA: 43.16
ANC: 41.17
EFF: 11.7
JOBURG with 89% of the vote counted:
ANC: 42.22
DA: 41.23
EFF: 10.65
GAUTENG with 96% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.09%
DA: 38.14%
EFF: 11.24%
09.20
---------------------------------------------------
The conventional wisdom has it that the loss of Nelson Mandela Bay to the DA and the ANC's poor showing in Gauteng where it may lose Tshwane and Joburg, will seriously damage Zuma.
The line has been that he has survived Nkandla and the Des van Rooyen fiasco, but if there's one thing that there's no way he could walk out of alive, it's an election disaster.
And, make no mistake, this election has sent a clear message to the ANC that its reputation has been damaged.
Yes and no.
The poor showing will no doubt worry many in the ANC, but it may not worry Zuma.
Let's go back a few months to when the Gauteng ANC was on the cusp of calling for his removal in the wake of the Constitutional Court's damning ruling. They pulled back from outright condemnation, but Zuma was stung.
Zuma's response was to suggest that the Gauteng ANC would only have itself to blame if it performed poorly in the local government election.
While the national political implications of the election slide are obvious, less obvious is how this plays out within the ANC itself.
The decline and fall of the Gauteng ANC may well strengthen Zuma's position within the ANC for two reasons. For one thing, the mainspring of internal criticism has been damaged and will have less patronage to dispense to build its influence.
For another, Zuma now has a golden opportunity to replace the leadership with more friendly faces as it faces internal turmoil over the poor election showing.
Zuma may be quietly celebrating.
09.00am
---------------------------------------------------
ANC is still holding strong in National poll as vote count reaches 99%.
Although the ANC is also leading the vote count in Gauteng and has snatched Johannesburg, the DA is not letting go of Tshwane as they have edged even further overnight.
NATIONAL with 99% of the vote counted:
ANC: 53.81%
DA: 27.02%
EFF: 8.13%
Gauteng with 96% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.01%
DA: 38.23%
EFF: 11.23%
Tshwane with 98% of the vote counted:
DA: 43.36%
ANC: 41.01%
EFF: 11.65%
Johannesburg with 89% of the vote counted:
ANC: 42.03%
DA: 41.39%
EFF: 10.63%
Ekurhuleni with 99% of the vote counted:
ANC: 48.58%
DA: 34.26%
EFF: 11.23%
8.00am
---------------------------------------------------
In Tshwane, where 96% of the vote has been counted, the DA has skipped ahead with 43.6%, with the ANC behind at 40.84%. The pendulum has shifted slightly again in Johannesburg, with the ANC taking a slender 0,5% lead after 89% of the votes have been counted.
Meanwhile the ANC is all but ready to claim victory in Ekurhuleni, boasting 48.82% of the vote with 99% counted.
Here is the official IEC count just before 8am on Saturday
GAUTENG with 95% of the vote counted:
ANC: 44.91%
DA: 38.38%
EFF: 11.19%
JOHANNESBURG with 89% reported:
ANC: 41.98%
DA: 41.47%
EFF: 10.6%
TSHWANE with 96% reported:
DA: 43.6%
ANC: 40.84%
EFF: 11.56%
EKURHULENI with 99% reported:
ANC: 48.82%
DA: 34.33%
EFF: 11.29%
6.25 am
---------------------------------------------------
The DA has pulled ahead in both Tshwane and Joburg with both counts remaining very tight.
In Tshwane, overnight counting has taken the total number of votes authorised by the IEC to 95%.
The DA has 43.55% of the vote to the ANC's 40.92%. But, given the number of votes still to be counted, Mmusi Maimane's prediction that his party would be the overall winner seems likely to materialise. The EFF has 11.54%, making it the most likely path to power, as it were.
In Joburg, the margin is even tighter with 86% of the vote counted. Here the DA has 41.98% to the ANC's 41.57%, making a change of the winning party quite possible. Here the EFF has 10.49%, and is once more in the 'king-maker' position.
On the national stage, with 99% of the vote counted and vetted, the ANC's portion has shrunk to 53.83% while the DA has nudged upwards to 26.99%. The EFF is the next biggest party with 8.1% of the vote.
ELECTION RESULTS: As it happens
All the latest news, analysis and results from the 2016 local government elections as it happens. Refresh your browser for the latest updates...
A final summary as the election comes to a close:
It was an election that altered the face of the nation. To be sure, the ANC remained in firm control in more municipalities than anyone else by a long stretch. It took a 54% slice of the national vote - twice that of its nearest rival, the DA with 27% and far more than the EFF's 8%.
But, that was not the whole story. The ANC had shed 8% of its support since 2011 when it got 62%, most of it probably accounted for by the EFF, which was still a twinkle in Julius Malema's eye back then.
The DA rose by three percent since the previous local government election. But it was a targeted three percent concentrated in its Western Cape kingdom and then on three metros - Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Johannesburg which it identified as key battle grounds.
This was the first election the DA fought with a black leader and the jury is still out on whether or not it managed to attract black voters in significant numbers.
But strategy of attacking the ANC in the three metros over its governance record and its president's lack of accountability, paid off.
It wrested Nelson Mandela Bay from the ANC with 47% to the latter's 41%. It was an earth-shattering victory in the city named after the ANC's iconic leader and widely regarded as the epicentre of its Eastern Cape heartland.
Then, by a tighter margin, the DA took Tshwane from the ANC, another body blow to the ruling party. Both the country's capitals are now in opposition hands.
It seemed that the DA was destined to make a clean sweep of the battle grounds until a late ANC resurgence saved Joburg.
It was a loud and crazy election which reaffirmed democracy, but it took place in the shadow of death. As many as 20 councillors and campaigners died in this election, a terrifying statistic which deserves some serious attention. Surely democracy should not exact such a price?
What this election did was to finally find the missing piece of the democratic puzzle - political competition. It is now clear that South Africans are prepared to 'chuck out the bums' as the Americans say, when they think their elected officials are failing them.
The genie is out of the bottle. The old habit of placing the party above all else has begun to melt in the heat of accountability.
What comes next will define this country. The ANC has two short years to turn the tide. Will it finally act to remove the man who has defined ruling party arrogance and who does not respect the constitution, Jacob Zuma? Without taking this step quickly, the party has little hope of re-inventing itself. It is not a long road from 54% to 44% - just ask the dazed and confused ANC leaders in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Also in the wings is the start of a whole new way of governing at local level as several major cities will be ruled by coalitions. Will the politics of negotiation bring new energy to civic affairs or will it lead, Italian-style, to administrative inertia and further decay? It's a cliche, but it really does 'remain to be seen'.
21.10
--------------------------------
And the much-delayed Joburg result is finally in:
ANC: 44.55%
DA: 38.37%
EFF: 11.09%
The ANC pulled this one out the fire, but did dip below 50%.
13.42
---------------------------------------------------
Johannesburg may be about to enter a period of political crisis. The ANC is in the lead with a total of 42.55% of the pie with 91% of the vote counted. But it is the slimmest of leads as the DA has 40.75% and the EFF has 10.75%. The reason that a potential crisis looms is simple. The EFF has made it very clear that it will not enter into a coalition with the ANC.
Even if the ANC were to mop up all the other parties, it would not breach the 50% threshold. It could then decide to go ahead and form a minority government. Such a government would be stymied at every step by the opposition's majority coalition. Budgets would not be passed, council resolutions would be dead before they were proposed and the city could grind to a slow treacle like halt. Just in time for the December heatwave.
The ANC would have to make this difficult choice: I think it has been characterised before as 'Submit or fight'.
13.00
---------------------------------------------------
DA has officially snatched Tshwane from the ANC.
The DA, as leader Mmusi Maimane projected, is the majority party in Tshwane with 43.1%.
Just after 1pm‚ all votes had been counted and the DA led with 43.11% followed by the ANC with 41.22 and the EFF with 11.7%.
This is the first metro in Gauteng to go to the DA in the democratic era of South Africa.
The DA will have to form a coalition however as it has attained the required majority.
Tshwane with 100% of the votes counted:
DA: 43.1%
ANC: 41.22%
EFF: 11.7%
Seats:
DA: 93 seats
ANC: 89 seats
EFF: 25 seats
12.00pm
---------------------------------------------------
Here is the official IEC count just before 12pm on Saturday
GAUTENG with 97% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.2%
DA: 38%
EFF: 11.27%
JOHANNESBURG with 90% reported:
ANC: 42.47%
DA: 40.87%
EFF: 10.71%
TSHWANE with 99% reported:
DA: 43.1%
ANC: 41.23%
EFF: 11.71%
EKURHULENI with 99% reported:
ANC: 48.62%
DA: 34.2%
EFF: 11.23%
11.45am
---------------------------------------------------
Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane has warned that his party is in a good position to govern all the three metros of Gauteng.
Speaking at a press briefing in Tshwane‚ Maimane said all indicators in Tshwane‚ Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg showed that the support of the African National Congress was on a serious decline while the democrats were on an upward trend.
“We await results from Johannesburg but all indicators from our side show that we have shown great growth and also that the ANC has declined to a point that prospectively now they will get about 45% of the votes in Johannesburg…We will look to form some form of coalition government so that we can govern for the people of Johannesburg‚” Maimane said.
11.15am
---------------------------------------------------
ANC Gauteng Chairperson Paul Mashatile says the fact that there is no outright majority in these elections shows that "our democracy is maturing".
ANC and DA have been neck-on-neck in Tshwane and Johannesburg with the DA likely to take the capital city and the ANC taking Johannesburg.
He said that they will be seeking coalitions soon as the official results are announced.
11.00am
---------------------------------------------------
The DA is maintaining its lead over Tshwane with only 1% of the vote left to be counted. In Joburg there's only a one percentage point difference between the two largest parties, making it too close to call.
Here is the official IEC count just before 11am on Saturday
GAUTENG with 96% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.14%
DA: 38.08%
EFF: 11.25%
JOHANNESBURG with 90% reported:
ANC: 42.6%
DA: 41.06%
EFF: 10.74%
TSHWANE with 99% reported:
DA: 43.14%
ANC: 41.2%
EFF: 11.7%
EKURHULENI with 99% reported:
ANC: 48.71%
DA: 34.26%
EFF: 11.26%
10.35am
---------------------------------------------------
The Presidency has confirmed that Jacob Zuma will attend the official announcement of the 2016 Local Government Elections at the National Results Centre in Pretoria.
Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is set to announce the final results this afternoon.
10.20am
---------------------------------------------------
Not much has changed in the National vote count as we slowly approach 100%:
ANC: 53.82%
DA: 27%
EFF: 8.14%
GAUTENG with 96% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.13%
DA: 38.1%
EFF: 11.25%
TSHWANE with 99% of the vote counted:
DA: 43.14
ANC: 41.2
EFF: 11.7
JOBURG with 90% of the vote counted:
ANC: 42.29%
DA: 41.1%
EFF: 10.65%
9.40am
---------------------------------------------------
It's now mathematically impossible for the ANC to pull ahead of the DA in Tshwane. But Joburg, where the pace of counting is slower, is still in play.
TSHWANE with 99% of the vote counted:
DA: 43.16
ANC: 41.17
EFF: 11.7
JOBURG with 89% of the vote counted:
ANC: 42.22
DA: 41.23
EFF: 10.65
GAUTENG with 96% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.09%
DA: 38.14%
EFF: 11.24%
09.20
---------------------------------------------------
The conventional wisdom has it that the loss of Nelson Mandela Bay to the DA and the ANC's poor showing in Gauteng where it may lose Tshwane and Joburg, will seriously damage Zuma.
The line has been that he has survived Nkandla and the Des van Rooyen fiasco, but if there's one thing that there's no way he could walk out of alive, it's an election disaster.
And, make no mistake, this election has sent a clear message to the ANC that its reputation has been damaged.
Yes and no.
The poor showing will no doubt worry many in the ANC, but it may not worry Zuma.
Let's go back a few months to when the Gauteng ANC was on the cusp of calling for his removal in the wake of the Constitutional Court's damning ruling. They pulled back from outright condemnation, but Zuma was stung.
Zuma's response was to suggest that the Gauteng ANC would only have itself to blame if it performed poorly in the local government election.
While the national political implications of the election slide are obvious, less obvious is how this plays out within the ANC itself.
The decline and fall of the Gauteng ANC may well strengthen Zuma's position within the ANC for two reasons. For one thing, the mainspring of internal criticism has been damaged and will have less patronage to dispense to build its influence.
For another, Zuma now has a golden opportunity to replace the leadership with more friendly faces as it faces internal turmoil over the poor election showing.
Zuma may be quietly celebrating.
09.00am
---------------------------------------------------
ANC is still holding strong in National poll as vote count reaches 99%.
Although the ANC is also leading the vote count in Gauteng and has snatched Johannesburg, the DA is not letting go of Tshwane as they have edged even further overnight.
NATIONAL with 99% of the vote counted:
ANC: 53.81%
DA: 27.02%
EFF: 8.13%
Gauteng with 96% of the vote counted:
ANC: 45.01%
DA: 38.23%
EFF: 11.23%
Tshwane with 98% of the vote counted:
DA: 43.36%
ANC: 41.01%
EFF: 11.65%
Johannesburg with 89% of the vote counted:
ANC: 42.03%
DA: 41.39%
EFF: 10.63%
Ekurhuleni with 99% of the vote counted:
ANC: 48.58%
DA: 34.26%
EFF: 11.23%
8.00am
---------------------------------------------------
In Tshwane, where 96% of the vote has been counted, the DA has skipped ahead with 43.6%, with the ANC behind at 40.84%. The pendulum has shifted slightly again in Johannesburg, with the ANC taking a slender 0,5% lead after 89% of the votes have been counted.
Meanwhile the ANC is all but ready to claim victory in Ekurhuleni, boasting 48.82% of the vote with 99% counted.
Here is the official IEC count just before 8am on Saturday
GAUTENG with 95% of the vote counted:
ANC: 44.91%
DA: 38.38%
EFF: 11.19%
JOHANNESBURG with 89% reported:
ANC: 41.98%
DA: 41.47%
EFF: 10.6%
TSHWANE with 96% reported:
DA: 43.6%
ANC: 40.84%
EFF: 11.56%
EKURHULENI with 99% reported:
ANC: 48.82%
DA: 34.33%
EFF: 11.29%
6.25 am
---------------------------------------------------
The DA has pulled ahead in both Tshwane and Joburg with both counts remaining very tight.
In Tshwane, overnight counting has taken the total number of votes authorised by the IEC to 95%.
The DA has 43.55% of the vote to the ANC's 40.92%. But, given the number of votes still to be counted, Mmusi Maimane's prediction that his party would be the overall winner seems likely to materialise. The EFF has 11.54%, making it the most likely path to power, as it were.
In Joburg, the margin is even tighter with 86% of the vote counted. Here the DA has 41.98% to the ANC's 41.57%, making a change of the winning party quite possible. Here the EFF has 10.49%, and is once more in the 'king-maker' position.
On the national stage, with 99% of the vote counted and vetted, the ANC's portion has shrunk to 53.83% while the DA has nudged upwards to 26.99%. The EFF is the next biggest party with 8.1% of the vote.
Click here for our elections results blog from 5 August
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