ANC could lose full control of all Gauteng's nine municipalities

The ANC in Gauteng finds itself in even deeper trouble as IEC results show it has so far failed to secure an outright win in any of the province's councils.

Gauteng has three metros, and six local and two district municipalities.

So far the story of this year's local government elections has been about the party's failure to win back outright majorities in the three metros of Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. By Wednesday afternoon, all three councils were hung.

But IEC results show that the party may fail to win outright all nine municipalities when the final results are published. The losses, however, do not include district municipalities, West Rand and Sedibeng, which will only be constituted later.

By 4pm on Wednesday afternoon, the IEC had completed results in Gauteng for five municipalities. Four of them are hung, while one, Midvaal, has been won by the DA - where the DA has been in control since 2011.

The results for the sixth local municipality, Emfuleni, have not yet been published, but trends indicate that this, too, will be a hung council.

This shows that the ruling ANC has struggled to garner enough support in smaller municipalities which it previously controlled.

In Lesedi, the party got 50.43%, but this is not enough to secure the 50%+1 of the seats it needs for outright control. This means the council is hung and the ANC will have to negotiate with opposition parties to form a coalition government or pass a budget.

Similarly, in Merafong City, the party will have to negotiate to form a government, but unlike in Lesedi, it fell below 50%. It managed 48.97% of the vote.

In the Rand West municipality, the ANC performed even worse, getting 45.33% of the total vote - and it risks being toppled by a coalition of opposition parties.

As expected, the party lost support in Mogale City, where it received 48.84% of the vote in the 2016 local government elections. This time around, it got only 40.17%.

A final result for Emfuleni municipality is yet to come, but with the majority of results having been captured, the party is set to lose the municipality. By the time of publication, the party stood at 38.81%, followed by the DA at 28% and EFF at 15.46%. 

These results may mean the ANC in Gauteng will relinquish its stronghold on local government, as all indications are it will battle to form governments in the three metros. 

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