KWAZULU-NATAL ANC chairperson Sihle Zikalala said on Thursday that corruption against party leaders, political infighting and the inability to improve the lives of ordinary people were some of the reasons responsible for the party’s poor showing at Monday’s local government elections.
The ANC has been outshone by the Inkatha Freedom Party in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
The IFP has won 16 of the councils throughout the province.
According to the Independent Electoral Commission’s results dashboard, the governing party slipped from 57% it received during the 2016 municipal elections to a paltry 42.2%.
Both the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) emerged as the big winners, with the DA coming in second place with 25.62% of the voter share while the red berets scored 10.48%.
The IFP emerged as the fourth biggest party in the metro, receiving 7.13%.
Speaking at a party briefing on Thursday, Zikalala said supporters in ANC strongholds not turning up to vote is a concern.
“They rather decided not to vote and causal factors are the objective conditions firstly and those conditions are unemployment. So the honest reflection is that the ANC support base is hurting and disappointed,” said Zikalala.
ANC provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli said the loss of its majority in a big metro has implications for the future of party.
“The immediate implication that is of concern to us is that it creates an impression and it sets the scene towards 2024 that the ANC if it doesn’t attend to many of the challenges that we have identified, will not be able to come back as a governing party in KwaZulu-Natal. That’s the implication of losing the biggest party of your province,” said Ntuli.
According to the IEC’s preliminary results, ANC has won 784 seats across KZN, the IFP has 522 seats and the DA 174.
There are 18 hung councils in the KZN province.
- Inside Politics
