South Africa’s ruling party faces biggest election challenge

The results have reshaped the political landscape in South Africa where the ANC has ruled virtually unopposed since it ended white-minority rule in 1994, led by Nelson Mandela.

In Tshwane, a metropolitan area that includes Pretoria, the Democratic Alliance (DA) won 43.1 percent of the vote over the ANC’s 41.2 percent, the electoral commission reported. With 92% of the vote counted, the ANC was leading with 42.69% followed by the DA with 40.59%.

The election losses have threatened two decades of dominance by the ANC, the former anti-apartheid movement.

With solid support in rural areas, the ANC still has majority support across the country, a reflection of its liberation struggle history and the significant improvement in basic living standards for poor South Africans since apartheid.

The poll is a mid-term comment on the performance of President Jacob Zuma, who has been the subject of scandals since taking office in 2009, and has been plagued by the country’s economic crises.

In late 2015 and earlier this year, South Africans marched in major cities, calling on the ruling ANC to recall Zuma. On social media, South Africans mocked President Jacob Zuma’s recent claim that the ANC would rule “until Jesus comes back”. “That is how it should be in a democracy”, Mr Zuma said in his first remarks following the results.

The radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, which is led by Julius Malema, Zuma’s one-time protege, is participating in only its second election and was running a distant third in the votes counted. Zuma didn’t appear to respond.

But it lost among other places in Port Elizabeth municipality, which the party had renamed the Nelson Mandela Bay, despite invoking anti-apartheid messaging in its campaign. The Democratic Alliance won Nelson Mandela Bay after fielding a white candidate for mayor.

Last year, the party elected its first black leader, 36-year old Mmusi Maimane. He said the idea that his party was a white one has been “completely shattered”.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president of the A.N.C. and of the nation, said at a news conference on Friday afternoon that the organization would “do an introspective look at ourselves”. For the party to understand why and orchestrate a meaningful reversal before 2019, its leaders need to examine the results, understand the national mood and make an honest diagnosis, Msimang said.

The party so far has received 54% of votes across the country, with the Democratic Alliance getting 26%. The party, which advocates the nationalization of industry and other measures it says will help the poor, has garnered nearly 8 percent of the vote nationwide.

Increased political competition has the potential to boost reform momentum in the run-up to the 2019 national elections, even as spending pressures are likely to rise, the company said.