The people of South Africa have spoken.
They have told the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay, Johannesburg, Tshwane and other places that they are sick and tired.
If the ANC does not listen, it will be out of power come 2019. What we know about liberation movements is that once they lose, they never come back - look at Cape Town.
Also read: ELECTION 2016: Coalitions explained in 6 easy points
The first thing we learn from how South Africans have voted is that the ANC is now a rural party.
For it to lose the majority of metros means that the party no longer enjoys the overwhelming support of people who live in cities.
Ours is different from most African countries in that the majority of its citizens live in urban areas, and the future is moving in that direction. As a rural party, the ANC is on its way to the end.
The election results also tell us that the road to South Africa's future will go via coalition politics. We say "via" because coalition politics are not permanent. Eventually one party wins and governs alone.
The likelihood is that people in the ANC will start fighting among themselves. Those in the national office will blame the Gauteng provincial leadership for the loss of Tshwane and Johannesburg.
The provincial leaders in Gauteng will blame Jacob Zuma, and Zuma will blame regional leaders in Nelson Mandela Bay. In the end, the ANC will mount a non-coherent come-back strategy.
Moreover, the ANC will be divided over who takes over from Zuma. KwaZulu-Natal will force Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on the ANC, and the majority of South Africans will not vote for the ANC in 2019, avoiding anything that smells like Zuma. The surname Zuma has now become a source of shame for most South Africans.
We are thus facing the real prospects of the ANC losing power in the next national elections, or, realistically, in 2024.
The 2016 municipal election results suggest that two parties represent South Africa's future: the DA and the EFF. While they will form coalition governments for now, they are the real competitors of the future.
The DA will become more of a black middle class party, while still accommodating whites. The EFF will become a social democratic party in reality, and a socialist party rhetorically.
But can the DA and the EFF work well together in a stable coalition government? The answer is surprisingly yes. In fact, theirs will be the best government you can get.
In a coalition government, the EFF will be pulled to the centre. The party will drop its anti-white posture. How could the EFF be anti-white while serving under a white mayor in Nelson Mandela Bay, Athol Trollip?
The party will not stand on a government platform calling for land appropriation without compensation. EFF radicals in municipal councils will learn a new language of government, and they will do everything not to collapse the coalition government.
On its part, the DA will learn how to deal with a poor, uneducated, unemployable black person who lives in an informal settlement. So far the party does not know how to handle such a person. In the end, the DA will be forced to deliver to the poor, and the EFF will be forced to become a normal governing party.
The good thing about the two parties, unlike the ANC, is that they will never agree to do corruption together. Each partner will watch the other, and they will not employ party deployees.
If you are looking for a job, and you are not a member of a political party, send your CV where the DA and the EFF co-govern. You stand a better chance there than where the ANC governs alone. The ANC looks after its cadres, not politically neutral South Africans.
What about service delivery?
It will be in the interests of both the DA and the EFF to demonstrate that voters did not make a mistake by giving power to the two parties. They both would like to prove that they are better than the ANC.
When asked how the EFF would reconcile its socialist ideology with the liberalism of the DA, Dali Mpofu responded: "What is ideological about eradicating bucket toilets in Port Elizabeth?"
He is correct; there is little ideology about water provision, refuse removal, electricity supply, and so on. When all is said and done, the 2016 election results are a free lesson to the ANC that political arrogance, corruption and a backward leadership are a recipe for disaster.
More importantly, the ANC will now learn that naming a municipality "Nelson Mandela Bay" is not enough to guarantee power to a liberation movement that has become rotten.
South Africans are now interested in bread and butter issues, and the election results are clear: We want to be led by humble and accountable leaders, not arrogant braggarts.
Election shows the ANC is on its way out
The people of South Africa have spoken.
They have told the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay, Johannesburg, Tshwane and other places that they are sick and tired.
If the ANC does not listen, it will be out of power come 2019. What we know about liberation movements is that once they lose, they never come back - look at Cape Town.
Also read: ELECTION 2016: Coalitions explained in 6 easy points
The first thing we learn from how South Africans have voted is that the ANC is now a rural party.
For it to lose the majority of metros means that the party no longer enjoys the overwhelming support of people who live in cities.
Ours is different from most African countries in that the majority of its citizens live in urban areas, and the future is moving in that direction. As a rural party, the ANC is on its way to the end.
The election results also tell us that the road to South Africa's future will go via coalition politics. We say "via" because coalition politics are not permanent. Eventually one party wins and governs alone.
The likelihood is that people in the ANC will start fighting among themselves. Those in the national office will blame the Gauteng provincial leadership for the loss of Tshwane and Johannesburg.
The provincial leaders in Gauteng will blame Jacob Zuma, and Zuma will blame regional leaders in Nelson Mandela Bay. In the end, the ANC will mount a non-coherent come-back strategy.
Moreover, the ANC will be divided over who takes over from Zuma. KwaZulu-Natal will force Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on the ANC, and the majority of South Africans will not vote for the ANC in 2019, avoiding anything that smells like Zuma. The surname Zuma has now become a source of shame for most South Africans.
We are thus facing the real prospects of the ANC losing power in the next national elections, or, realistically, in 2024.
The 2016 municipal election results suggest that two parties represent South Africa's future: the DA and the EFF. While they will form coalition governments for now, they are the real competitors of the future.
The DA will become more of a black middle class party, while still accommodating whites. The EFF will become a social democratic party in reality, and a socialist party rhetorically.
But can the DA and the EFF work well together in a stable coalition government? The answer is surprisingly yes. In fact, theirs will be the best government you can get.
In a coalition government, the EFF will be pulled to the centre. The party will drop its anti-white posture. How could the EFF be anti-white while serving under a white mayor in Nelson Mandela Bay, Athol Trollip?
The party will not stand on a government platform calling for land appropriation without compensation. EFF radicals in municipal councils will learn a new language of government, and they will do everything not to collapse the coalition government.
On its part, the DA will learn how to deal with a poor, uneducated, unemployable black person who lives in an informal settlement. So far the party does not know how to handle such a person. In the end, the DA will be forced to deliver to the poor, and the EFF will be forced to become a normal governing party.
The good thing about the two parties, unlike the ANC, is that they will never agree to do corruption together. Each partner will watch the other, and they will not employ party deployees.
If you are looking for a job, and you are not a member of a political party, send your CV where the DA and the EFF co-govern. You stand a better chance there than where the ANC governs alone. The ANC looks after its cadres, not politically neutral South Africans.
What about service delivery?
It will be in the interests of both the DA and the EFF to demonstrate that voters did not make a mistake by giving power to the two parties. They both would like to prove that they are better than the ANC.
When asked how the EFF would reconcile its socialist ideology with the liberalism of the DA, Dali Mpofu responded: "What is ideological about eradicating bucket toilets in Port Elizabeth?"
He is correct; there is little ideology about water provision, refuse removal, electricity supply, and so on. When all is said and done, the 2016 election results are a free lesson to the ANC that political arrogance, corruption and a backward leadership are a recipe for disaster.
More importantly, the ANC will now learn that naming a municipality "Nelson Mandela Bay" is not enough to guarantee power to a liberation movement that has become rotten.
South Africans are now interested in bread and butter issues, and the election results are clear: We want to be led by humble and accountable leaders, not arrogant braggarts.
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