ELECTIONS WRAP | IEC declares SA's elections 'free and fair', despite challenges

November 4 — 21:39

DA keeps Cape Town but with a reduced majority of 58%

It's official: The DA will govern Cape Town for another five years, but with a reduced majority.

The final results announced on Thursday revealed that the DA won the Western Cape's only metropolitan municipality with 58.2% of the vote. This is down from the 66.7% it received in August 2016. In that election it secured 154 seats, but it now holds 135.

Cape Town mayor-elect Geordin Hill-Lewis thanked Capetonians for electing a new DA government with “a strong, outright majority”.

November 4 — 20:21

LISTEN | 'We all want the same thing': Ramaphosa urges parties to work together

“If we are to make this a new and better era, we, as leaders, must put aside our differences and work together in the spirit of partnership, co-operation, collaboration and common purpose in the people of SA.”

So said President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking during the official announcement of the final 2021 municipal election results in Pretoria on Thursday evening.

Ramaphosa’s comments signalled the direction in which South African politics was going, with more coalitions forming. In total, 30% of the country's councils had no outright winner.

November 4 — 19:39

Western Cape ANC blames poor voter turnout for its decline in Cape Town

The ANC in the Western Cape has put its electoral decline this week down to a poor voter turnout, especially in its strongholds in Cape Town.

The party's representation in the city is expected to go below the 20% mark. It was at 24.7% in 2016.

Cape Town's results were still to be declared at the time of publishing.

November 4 — 18:55

IEC declares SA's elections 'free and fair', despite challenges

SA's local government elections have officially been declared free and fair.

Speaking during the results announcement on Thursday evening, IEC chair Glen Mashinini said: “The Electoral Commission is pleased to announce that it has satisfied itself that the conditions for free and fair elections were met, and that the results for 213 councils are declared as final.”

November 4 — 18:00

WATCH LIVE | IEC announces the 2021 local government election results

November 4 — 16:47

ANC wins Soweto wards where protesters blocked roads to party election rally

Despite trying to block the party from holding its final election rally last week, residents of Senaoane and Dlamini in Soweto have voted the ANC back into power in their wards.

Last week the ANC received a hostile welcome in Soweto, where it was going to hold its final Siyanqoba election rally in Thokoza Park on Friday afternoon.

The rally, which was to be addressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was the face of the ANC campaign, had to be delayed as residents from both Senaoane and Dlamini blocked the roads leading to the venue, protesting about a lack of electricity.

November 4 — 16:30

EFF achieved mission to push ANC under 50%: Julius Malema

The EFF is not fazed by not winning municipalities outright: as long as the ANC stands at less than 50% in some municipalities, it is mission accomplished.

This is according to party leader Julius Malema who was addressing journalists on Thursday afternoon on the party's performance in the 2021 local government elections.

November 4 — 15:06

WATCH | Ramaphosa's 'boring' campaign didn't inspire voters, says Malema after #LGE2021

November 4 — 14:58

'If we do not arrest the decline we will be in trouble': KZN ANC on elections

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal believes that if it does not get its act together, the party will lose outright governance in the province come 2024.

On Thursday, the party reflected on its electoral performance. Provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli said failing to win eThekwini metro outright was a sign of worse things to come if the party did not address its decline in KwaZulu-Natal.

“Losing our majority in eThekwini forces us into a deep reflection about the future of the ANC in the province — the immediate implication is if we do not address the challenges we will not come back in 2024. We have lost the ability to govern — if we do not arrest the decline we will be in trouble,” said Ntuli.

November 4 — 14:34

Mashaba calls for input on 'preferred ActionSA coalition partners'

November 4 — 14:22

Meet the councillors likely to make up new Nelson Mandela Bay council

November 4 – 14:12

DA wants stable coalitions that will 'go the distance'

November 4 — 13:44

ANC in KZN forced into 'deep reflection of future as a governing party'

November 4 — 13:35

Malema: 'We can lead them in a coalition'

November 4 — 12:36

Let's work together: KZN premier

November 4 — 12:28

‘I will run for president in this country’ — Maimane

The founder of the One SA Movement Mmusi Maimane spoke to Eusebius McKaiser about how his exit from the DA as the party’s leader has allowed him to grow, and his new “lit” persona on Twitter. On Eusebius on TimesLIVE, he also critiqued the current electoral system, and explained why reform is crucial to improve governance.

Maimane said he will return to formal politics next year and is “not coy” about his political ambitions. He explained why and how the results of the local government elections bolster his intuitions about the limitations of the parties currently dominating SA politics. Listen to what he had to say: 

November 4 — 12:21

IEC ready to declare election results on Thursday as 99% already captured

The Electoral Commission says the counting and capturing of votes is at an advanced stage as 99% of the results are already in the system awaiting scanning and auditing. It made the announcement on Thursday morning.

“This means of the 64,502 results expected, 64,467 have been captured into the results system. Of the 64,467 results captured, 64,402 have audited and 63,624 have been scanned into an image and [are] thus available,” the commission said.  

November 4 — 12:14

KZN preliminary results announced

KwaZulu-Natal preliminary local government election results as announced by the IEC on Thursday:

• eThekwini metro had the lowest voter turnout in KwaZulu-Natal at 42.4%.
• Number of seats per party: 784 for the ANC, 522 for IFP, DA at 174.
• IFP is the official opposition.
• There are 18 hung councils in KZN, the most in SA election history.

— Zimasa Matiwane

November 4 — 12:05

EFF press conference to start soon

November 4 – 12:02

Nelson Mandela Bay electorate felt 'betrayed' by leaders: Khusta Jack

November 4 — 11:55

Finalisation of results nearing 100%

November 4 — 11:46

Parliament responds to 'alarmist' allegations it's in contempt of court

November 4 — 11:41

KZN results expected soon

November 4 — 11:40

Significant swings overnight as battle for SA’s metros draws to a close

If coalition talks haven’t yet begun, perhaps they should start soon. Such is the situation on Thursday morning across SA’s metros that multiparty teaming up is going to be the order of the day.

The ANC and the DA were neck-and-neck in Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, while the former had been able to open up a gap in Johannesburg. The ANC had also squeaked over the 50% mark in Mangaung, but this could easily change as the final dust settles. Only in two councils, Cape Town and Buffalo City, is the ultimate winning party set to get more than the 50% needed for an outright majority. Coalitions will be the order of the day everywhere else.

Exactly who the big winners and losers are will be revealed when the IEC releases the official results on Thursday evening, but it is looking increasingly clear that the ANC has been this election’s big loser.

November 4 — 11:34

ActionSA 'a new party not a small party', says optimistic Herman Mashaba

Herman Mashaba says he is proud of the performance of ActionSA in the local government elections after it was formed in August last year. He said the support from volunteers who offered their skills to the party at its formative stage and the voters who backed it in Monday’s elections, demonstrated that ActionSA may be new, but it is not a small player in the political space. 

ActionSA contested the local government elections in targeted metros and municipalities, which include Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Newcastle and KwaDukuza.

November 4 — 11:31

‘Keep my name out of it’: Maimane tells Steenhuisen to stop blaming him

Former DA leader Mmusi Maimane has slammed his successor John Steenhuisen, saying he should stop blaming him for the party’s drop in performance in the local government elections. 

The One SA Movement leader this week came out guns blazing after Steenhuisen blamed his 2019 exit for the DA’s performance in this year’s elections. 

November 4 — 11:25

ANC bigwigs to consider coalition options

A wounded ANC goes into the final day of vote counting thinking about the coalition arrangements it has to go into after a poor showing in this year’s local government election.

TimesLIVE has learnt that the ANC election management team last night held a meeting to consider the options at their disposal. Chief among them is the consideration of having a “swap” deal, where the ANC gets into an agreement not to oppose its coalition partner in a particular municipality in return for the coalition partner returning the favour in municipalities the ANC wants to govern.

November 4 — 10:56

Scenes from Gqeberha

November 4 — 10:49

One SA Movement congratulates independents making 'real change'

November 4 — 10:43

eThekwini results

November 4 — 10:30

Election results announcement set for 6pm — tune in to watch

The IEC's announcement of the final results of the 2021 municipal elections is scheduled for Thursday evening at its results operations centre at the Tshwane Events Centre, the presidency said in a statement. 

November 4 — 09:39

DA secures 39.9% of votes in Gqeberha

November 4 — 08:14

DA Cape Town mayoral candidate Geordin Hill-Lewis celebrates in Athlone

November 4 — 07:55

Northern Alliance stuns the big guns

November 4 – 07:48

Browse our interactive maps to see who’s taking your area

November 4 — 07:10

If things don’t change, SA faces a leaderless revolution far worse than July

It is not just the ANC that must be worried about Monday’s low voter turnout. South Africans should be concerned that a large majority of our countrymen and women seem to have lost trust in our political system. The decision to stay at home instead of making their mark at the polls is a clear sign it is losing legitimacy, with citizens no longer believing politicians have the will to solve their problems.

This spells disaster in a country with high levels of unemployment, poverty and hopelessness. History tells us that when people lose trust in their leaders, they resort to leading themselves — and there is nothing more dangerous than a leaderless revolution.

November 4 — 07:01

JONATHAN JANSEN | Red flag: SA is ripe for capture by right-wing authoritarianism

The potholes that were there on Sunday were still there on Tuesday. South Africans are not stupid. It took six local government elections since the end of apartheid to drive home a simple point — that you can vote till you’re blue in the face and it will make absolutely no difference to your material existence, especially if, like many of your fellow citizens, you are struggling to survive from one day to the next.

On the day after the municipal elections on Monday, load-shedding resumed and the petrol price shot up to record levels. This time the hasty handing out of cheap homes, the shameless doling out of cash and promises of utopia simply did not land. Officials were scrambling to explain record low voter turnout. The rain. The virus. The faulty machines. It’s quite simple, actually: the people are gatvol.

November 4 — 06:57

Work with us or pack your bags, victorious DA warns uMngeni officials

Just hours after its historic victory in KwaZulu-Natal's uMngeni municipality, the DA has issued a warning to the municipal officials there to either “work with the party or pack their bags”.

Addressing supporters gathered at the victory rally on Wednesday at Howick Falls, DA provincial leader Francois Rodgers said officials would be made accountable to the people of uMngeni.

“We have no time to waste — we have been given five years,” said Rodgers.

November 4 — 06:52

TOM EATON | We’re not fools, DA and ANC. We can see your gaslight at the end of the tunnel

It’s embarrassing to get stood up at the best of times. But when you’ve been ghosted in the full glare of the national media, it’s excruciating. No wonder Jessie Duarte and John Steenhuisen have been sounding like jilted teenagers as the full wreckage of the local government elections becomes clear.

Duarte, whose ANC fell below the symbolic 50% threshold for the first time in the democratic era, opted for that age-old favourite of the embarrassed teen: the blasé shrug, followed by self-serving revisionism.

Steenhuisen, not blessed with the sort of charisma that allows you to look cool and unfussed when you’re trying to fib your way out of a hole, simply chose to deny the existence of the hole.

November 4 — 06:48

Decade of decline: a look back to 2011 shows how far the ANC has fallen

There might still be some counting to do and some dust to settle, but one thing is clear: the ANC is a declining force.  While the ANC slipped significantly from its performance in 2016, looking back to 2011 shows just how the party’s decade of decline has seen it fall.

Unless there are significant changes overnight, come the final vote tally, the ANC will only have majority control in one of the country’s eight metros: East London-based Buffalo City. This is in stark contrast to 2011, when it had outright control in seven metros.

November 4 — 06:45

Mmusi Maimane outlines his path back to formal politics

Former DA leader and founder of the One SA Movement Mmusi Maimane spoke to Eusebius McKaiser about how his exit from the DA has allowed him to grow, and with it his new “lit” persona on Twitter. On Eusebius on TimesLIVE he also critiqued the electoral system and explained why reform is crucial to improve governance.

Maimane confirmed he will return to formal politics next year and remarked that he is “not coy” about his political ambition. He explained why and how the results of Monday’s local government elections bolster his intuition about the limitations of the parties that dominate South African politics.

November 4 — 06:37

'Tectonic shift' as Patriotic Alliance takes Eldos

November 4 — 06:31

ANC and DA win 48 seats each in Nelson Mandela Bay

November 4 2021 — 06:25

Welcome to our rolling coverage of the 2021 local government elections for Thursday. To view the previous days' live updates, please see the links below: