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Ruling ANC in danger of losing majority in critical South Africa election

Ruling ANC in danger of losing majority in critical South Africa election
By Mersiha Gadzo and Edna Mohamed
Published On 29 May 2024
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Updated: 30 May 2024 (21:22 GMT)

For all the latest results, please visit our results live page here. This live page is now closed.

29 May 2024 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)

Thanks for joining us

Polls are closed and vote counting is under way. Initial results should begin trickling in overnight, with final results expected to be announced by the country’s Electoral Commission this weekend.

Read our reporting from election day here. Read more about the key issues in this election here. And get a refresher about the mechanics of the vote here.

Follow all our coverage from South Africa in the coming days as we bring you the election results and more.

29 May 2024 - 20:50
 (20:50 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

Polls officially closed at 9pm local time (19:00 GMT), although the last voters in line were still casting their ballots. Here’s a recap of the day:

  • Millions of South Africans went to the polls in nine provinces for national and provincial elections that could test the ANC’s 30-year rule.
  • Polls were open from 7am to 9pm (05:00 GMT to 19:00 GMT), but the electoral commission (IEC) said people still in queues would be allowed to cast their votes even after closing time.
  • More than 27 million voters are registered in the country of 62 million. The IEC said the voter turnout will go “well beyond” the 66 percent recorded in the last election in 2019.
  • Seventy parties competed for votes, and a coalition government looks like a possibility for the first time since the end of apartheid.
  • No major irregularities or issues have so far been raised regarding the vote, although voters at some polling stations reported delays, power outages and problems with voter roll machines.
  • Vote counting began on Wednesday night when polls closed.
  • Partial results are expected by early Thursday and the IEC should announce the final results on Sunday.
  • If the ANC fails to win a 50 percent majority, it may have to form a coalition with other parties.
Voters queue at the Durban City Hall [Gianluigi Guercia/AFP] 
29 May 2024 - 20:40
 (20:40 GMT)

Polls closed, but last voting continues at 60 percent of polling stations

By Mike Hanna

Reporting from IEC National Results Operations Centre, South Africa

What we do know at this point is that voting is continuing at about 60 percent of the voting booths.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced earlier that anybody who is in a queue at the time when the polls closed – over an hour ago now – will be able to vote.

We saw that; we were at a nearby poll here in Midrand, where officials moved over 1,000 people into the school ground, and closed the gates so that they know that everybody who is in the queue would be able to vote and nobody else can join the queue after the cut-off voting time.

That, I imagine, is the sort of system that is happening at other voting booths throughout the country … In at least 60 percent of those [polling stations], voting continues until the last person who was in the queue at 9pm local time casts his or her vote.

29 May 2024 - 20:30
 (20:30 GMT)

Who are the key people in this election?

As the election heads to a close and many still wait to cast their ballots, let’s bring you up to speed on the candidates and parties hoping to secure a win.

Cyril Ramaphosa

South Africa’s current president and head of the African National Congress (ANC).

Ramaphosa, 71, is looking to secure his second and final election win, but many have predicted his party might not be able to secure an outright majority and will be forced to form a coalition government.

John Steenhuisen

Steenhuisen, 48, leader of the official opposition  Democratic Alliance (DA), is situating his party as the party to “rescue South Africa” from the ANC.

Jacob Zuma

Although former President Zuma, 82, was barred from standing as a member of parliament, he is the face of the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party, which is expected to gain seats from the ANC.

Julius Malema

Malema, 43, is the founder of the Economic Freedom Party (EFF), an anti-establishment, Marxist, Pan-Africanist party.

Read more about the candidates running in today’s election here.

(Al Jazeera)
29 May 2024 - 20:20
 (20:20 GMT)

Malema urges people to stay in queues to vote after official closing time

EFF leader, Julius Malema, thanked supporters for coming out to vote for his party after ballots officially closed.

In a video posted on X, Malema said he noted the “frustrations” that South Africans had been subjected to under the governing party.

“This is the time for land, for jobs, and to stop load shedding. You’ll stop load shedding by standing in the queue tonight and ensure that your vote stops load shedding forever, your vote brings jobs, your votes bring land,” he said.

He urged supporters to stay at polling stations and cast their votes after the IEC said votes may still be submitted by those already queuing at the time polls closed.

“We say to South Africa, thank you and thank you again for showing them that 2024 is our 1994 and we can only do that by not being discouraged on the queues.”

29 May 2024 - 20:10
 (20:10 GMT)

‘Vote for change’: South Africans put the ANC’s legacy on trial

By Qaanitah Hunter

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa

Mpimo Hlavanganwane is far younger than South Africa’s democracy. The 23-year-old grew up in Chiawelo, the same area of Soweto that President Cyril Ramaphosa calls home.

Moments before the president arrived at the Hitekani Primary School to cast his ballot in front of the glare of flashing cameras on Wednesday, Hlavanganwane quietly queued to vote.

But he said he could not vote for Ramaphosa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) even though he comes from a family with strong ties to the party.

“I am nervous, but it is necessary for us to vote to effect change,” Hlavanganwane said. “It doesn’t seem like they care about the youth.”

Read our story speaking to voters in Johannesburg on election day.

29 May 2024 - 20:00
 (20:00 GMT)

‘Hours’ until all votes are collated after polls close

By Mike Hanna

Reporting from Midrand, South Africa

The polls closed … [but] there are still queues at other polling stations.

We expected the delays to push back the official announcement [about the end of the vote].

We’re still looking at hours before the votes are collated, and it will be days before there’s a formal and official pronouncement of the vote, but now, we’re looking at, perhaps, indications.

Certainly, we will have very clear trends in terms of what has happened in this election in probably the next 18-24 hours.

29 May 2024 - 19:50
 (19:50 GMT)

WATCH: What’s at stake in South Africa’s election?

For the first time in 30 years, South Africa’s governing party faces election worries.

Support for the ANC is expected to fall dramatically, and it may lose its parliamentary majority. If that happens, it may be forced to form a coalition.

Watch this election day report from Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller in Soweto, Johannesburg.

29 May 2024 - 19:40
 (19:40 GMT)

As polls close, many still wait for their chance to vote

By Mike Hanna

Reporting from Midrand, South Africa

The polls closed … but it has been announced that anybody who’s in a queue at the time that the polls close will be able to vote. It’s going to be a long long time before everyone gets to vote.

A first-time voter in the queue told Al Jazeera they were “very excited” to vote.

Another person also said they were “excited to see a lot of people come out”.

“It’s about time that we have change in this country and I’m really proud that people came out to come and vote, to come and make a change. We are tired, we need change,” she told Al Jazeera.

29 May 2024 - 19:30
 (19:30 GMT)

Why this is a historic election

It’s been almost procedural over the last three decades for the African National Congress (ANC) to use its parliamentary majority to elect its leader as president of the country. This year may not be so simple.

Several polls placed the ANC’s support at less than 50 percent ahead of the election, raising the possibility that it might not have a majority.

It is still widely expected to be the biggest party, but if it goes below 50 percent it would then need an agreement or coalition with another party or parties to stay in government and get the 201 votes it needs from lawmakers to re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second and final five-year term.

The new parliament must meet for its first session within 14 days of the election results being announced to choose the president. Should the ANC lose its majority, there would likely be a feverish period of bargaining between it and other parties to form some sort of coalition before parliament sits.

It’s possible that several opposition parties could join together to oust the ANC completely from government and Ramaphosa as president if they don’t have a majority. That’s a very remote possibility, though, considering the two biggest opposition parties – the centrist DA and the far-left EFF – are as critical of each other as they are of the ANC and are seen as unlikely to work together.

29 May 2024 - 19:20
 (19:20 GMT)

Photos: Long queues as millions vote

Thousands of voters lined up to cast their ballots near Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand (also known as Wits) [Jerome Delay/AP]
People queued to vote in Cape Town [Esa Alexander/Reuters]
People queued into the evening in Durban [Alaister Russell/Reuters]
Locals waited to cast their votes in Hopetown in the Northern Cape [Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
View our gallery for more photos from the day of voting.

29 May 2024 - 19:10
 (19:10 GMT)

Voter turnout ‘well beyond’ last election: Electoral commission chief

Sy Mamabolo, CEO of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), said the body was pleased with the high voter turnout on Wednesday.

When asked about specific numbers during a media briefing, he said: “It’s difficult to call until you complete the counting process.

“But it’s safe to say it will be well beyond the 66 percent [turnout] we had in 2019.”

29 May 2024 - 19:00
 (19:00 GMT)

Polls closed

It’s 9pm in South Africa, 19:00 GMT, and polls are now closed.

“All voters who are in queues will be assisted to vote,” the Electoral Commission’s deputy CEO Masego Sheburi said earlier in the day, assuring voters that they would not be turned away if they were in line by 9pm.

Vote counting will begin immediately, with final results to be announced this weekend.

A person votes in Masiphumelele, the Cape Peninsula, South Africa [Nic Bothma/Reuters]
29 May 2024 - 18:50
 (18:50 GMT)

Voters report power outages at polling booths

In the suburb of Randburg in Johannesburg, some residents have reported power and water outages as they went to cast their votes, Times Live reports.

Power outages were also reported in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

During a media briefing, Independent Electoral Commission CEO Sy Mamabolo said all voting stations were provided with lights in case of a blackout, adding that the commission would look into the reports.

Mamabolo said the commission did not want the votes to occur in the dark, but local media reported that that is precisely what was happening in some areas.

29 May 2024 - 18:40
 (18:40 GMT)

‘Exceedingly long queues’ as people hope to vote before polls close

By Mike Hanna

Reporting from Midrand, South Africa

Election organisers are very happy with the way the day is going, however, what they’ve been hit with, they say, is by a late surge in the afternoon.

The polls are due to close in 25 minutes, but throughout the country, there are still reports of exceedingly long queues. Now, the commission says as well that even when the polls close, those who are part of the queue will still be allowed to vote.

But let me just give you an idea: the fence behind me, there is a queue stretching for about a kilometre (0.6 miles) up the road.

I spoke to people at the front of this queue. It took them over two hours. Now if you put all of that arithmetic together, polls closing, you are still going to have people in a queue who will have to wait some two and a half hours to cast their votes. This is happening in many parts of the country.

What this means as well, is that the actual results will be delayed because you have to wait for all the votes to come in before you can start collating them.

29 May 2024 - 18:30
 (18:30 GMT)

Vote counting to take place at polling stations, says IEC

The CEO of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), Sy Mamabolo, said voters who are in voting queues at 9pm (19:00 GMT) will be allowed to vote even if the polls have officially closed.

In a briefing, Mamabolo said the counting process will begin after all votes have been submitted.

The counting will take place at polling stations, and ballots will not be transported – observers will be allowed to monitor the counting process.

The IEC has seven days to complete the counting process, he explained, but said “it is not the intention of the commission to take the full seven days” to release the results.

29 May 2024 - 18:15
 (18:15 GMT)
Analysis

‘Big shock’ to ANC if they get below 50 percent of vote

Melanie Verwoerd, a political analyst and former ANC MP, says that while South Africans “definitely” want change in terms of governance, this does not necessarily mean they will not vote for the governing party.

“The question is, though, how badly will the ANC do, and at this stage it looks like they could possibly still make the 45 percent mark and up. It’s important to note they will still be by far the majority party in the country,” Verwoerd told Al Jazeera.

“The Democratic Alliance is the major opposition party. They’re not expected to get much more than the low or mid-20s.

“The Economic Freedom Fighters, under Julius Malema, [is] somewhere along the 10,11,12 percent. So the ANC will stay a dominant power in the political domain, but it will be a big shock for them when they fall under 50 percent for the first time since democracy.”

29 May 2024 - 18:00
 (18:00 GMT)

Mandela’s World: A photographic retrospective of apartheid South Africa

Thirty years ago, South Africans voted in the country’s first multiracial democratic elections.

For decades before that, the segregationist system of apartheid ruled – separating races from one another.

Photographer Jurgen Schadeberg (1931-2020) spent most of his life documenting the struggle against apartheid.

Years before his death in 2020, Schadeberg shared some of his images of that time – and the stories behind them – with Al Jazeera.

View them here.

“Freedom in our time”, reads an ANC banner from the 1952 anti-apartheid Defiance Campaign in South Africa [Jurgen Schadeberg]
29 May 2024 - 17:50
 (17:50 GMT)

When will results start coming in?

There is just more than one hour of voting time left in the election. But when will the results start coming in?

South Africa’s electoral commission normally starts releasing partial results within hours of the polling stations closing at 9pm (19:00GMT). The national picture will emerge gradually over the following days.

By law, the commission has seven days to announce full results.

The last election in 2019 was also held on a Wednesday, and the final result was announced on Saturday.

This year, voters have three ballots each – not two – so some analysts say voting may take a little longer, with final results predicted for Sunday.

Read more about the mechanics of the election here.

29 May 2024 - 17:40
 (17:40 GMT)

‘I will never stop voting no matter my age’: 103-year-old voter

On Tuesday, registered voters with special needs, including the elderly and pregnant women, cast their votes before the polls officially opened today.

Norah Barnes, 103 years old, accompanied by her daughter, visited a school in Johannesburg to cast her vote in the election.

Barnes told the Rosebank Killarney Gazette that participating in the ballot was “extremely important”.

“I will never stop voting no matter my age,” Barnes told the outlet.