Johannesburg – Election analysts have predicted that the ANC will take the Ekurhuleni Municipality but they have not ruled out a hung council.
The 6th Local Government Elections 2021 took place on Monday, voter turnout hit the lowest compared to other years.
The ANC is leading the pack with 40%, followed by the DA with 30% and on their heels is the EFF with 14%, IFP with 1.5% and the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) at 3.5%. More results are expected to come in as the day goes by.
“The ANC will get the most votes in Ekurhuleni but will fall well short of what they achieved in 2016. In 2016 they got 49% of the votes, we are predicting that they will end up with 40% of the votes.
“What has happened in Ekurhuleni from the data we have seen is that they are under-performing in their strongholds like Tsakane, Duduza. The ANC has not been able to get their voters out and they are losing their votes to the EFF,” said election analyst Wayne Sussman.
He said even though the ANC is a big party, they are seen losing major grounds in key areas of Ekurhuleni.
Sussman predicted hung councils where no single political party holds a majority of the council seats.
“In 2016 the ANC turned to the African Independent Congress (AIC) and formed a simple coalition. This time it is going to be much harder for the ANC to form a coalition, they are going to have to seek more than one party if they want to remain in charge of Ekurhuleni in the next five years.
“Right now we can confidently predict that the ANC does not have enough numbers to get close to the outright majority and this is a significant development in Gauteng province,” Sussman said.
He said whoever wins Ekurhuleni when they start the coalition negotiations, is going to have to find multiple partners and multiple parties to do business with.
Sussman said this is going to be an uncomfortable situation.
The ANC received the majority of votes in Ekurhuleni of 48.64%, giving it 109 seats in the 224-seat council. It was followed by the DA with 34.15% and the EFF with 11.23%.
*Nearly 20% of votes have been counted.
Quick facts
ANC – 40%
DA – 30%
EFF – 14%
Political Bureau