DA holds Cape despite ANC Palestine push

That’s it from us for now – we’ll resume our coverage of these DA holds momentous results on Sunday, when we expect the electoral commission to announce the final results, after addressing any complaints filed by the parties. We’re also expecting to hear exactly how many seats each party has got in the 400-seat National Assembly. dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd dfd

The president and government should enjoy the support of at least 201 of those MPs.

South Africa divided into nine provinces, run by authorities who have extensive powers.

So the battle for control of these is just as important for South Africans as the national picture.

Before the election, the ANC ran all provinces except one – but that has changed dramatically.

With the counting of votes nearly complete, the ANC looks set to retain control of just five provinces on its own, needing to share power or face going into opposition in a further three.

These are the five provinces where it still has a majority:

And it has lost control of the wealthiest province of Gauteng, where it only got 35% of the vote.

While in KwaZulu-Natal, the MK party of former President Jacob Zuma has pushed the ANC out of power, getting 45%.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has retained control of the Western Cape, with more than 50%.

So a bad set of results for the ANC at provincial level, as well as nationally.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) looks set to extend its reign in the Western Cape province by another five years but a group of 18 aggrieved parties, including the ANC and EFF, have launched a joint protest against the counting process.

They are demanding DA holds:

A recount or even a revote in some areas where they allege there were irregularities. Some demonstrators have been chanting “recount and revote” outside the election commission (IEC) centre in Cape Town.

“In some cases the numbers don’t tally,” said Muhammed Haron, premier candidate of Al Jama-ah, one of the protesting parties.

“There are other cases where parties know they had good numbers of voters but these reflected in the final tallies. There are also cases where agents said they asked to leave the venue by the presiding officer while the counting was done.”

Another of the disgruntled parties, the Africa Restoration Alliance (ARA), got 7,500 votes in the Western Cape. Its leader Jerome Swartz said he intended to institute legal action against the IEC.

In a Facebook video, he said that in the Western Cape the ARA had more than 60,000 active members: “Being under 10,000 is plain ridiculous. It is fraud.”

The EFF also tweeted:

“The evidential material at our disposal seems to suggest that the capturing process of the IEC was weaponised against the EFF and many opposition parties in the Western Cape.”

Gayton McKenzie’s PA came sixth in the election – up from 32nd in 2019Image caption: Gayton McKenzie’s PA came sixth in the election – up from 32nd in 2019
One of the big winners in this election is controversial politician Gayton McKenzie, who leads the Patriotic Alliance (PA) which has campaigning for the deportation of illegal migrants – and is eager to be considered in coalition talks.

“I’m ecstatic,” McKenzie, a former gangster and ex-convict, told state broadcaster SABC.

He pointed out that only his party, and that of ex-President Jacob Zuma, the MK, had seen their support grow significantly in this election.

DA holds has gone from 0.04% of the vote five years ago to 2.06% nationally.

“We’ll work with anybody,” McKenzie, 50, said when asked about coalitions. His party is now the sixth biggest nationally.

But as part of the horse-trading that will inevitably be going on behind the scenes, he said there was one point on which the PA would not budge – foreigners.

“One thing for us that’s a non-negotiable, don’t waste our time and airtime to call us if you want illegal foreigners to stay,” Eyewitness News quoted him as saying.

To any reporter who approached him on the matter, he repeated the PA’s slogan on migration “mabahambe” – meaning “they must leave” in Zulu.

Illegal immigration has become a highly charged political issue, though no-one knows how many undocumented migrants live in South Africa.

Around 3% of the population, amounting to some 2.4 million people, are migrants to South Africa.

Ahead of the vote, rights group Human Rights Watch said that foreign nationals had used as scapegoats and demonised in the election campaign, risking a further outbreak of xenophobic violence.

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