South Africa’s ruling party suffers setback

Final results of largely peaceful municipal elections were being announced at 6 pm. Races remained tight in the largest city, Johannesburg, and Tshwane, the metropolitan area of the capital. 

Since South Africa’s first all-race election in 1994, the African National Congress party has had widespread support on the strength of its successful fight against white-minority rule. But this time, it has been challenged by corruption scandals and a stagnant economy that has frustrated the urban middle class, while protests in poor communities demanding basics like electricity and water have been common.

“Election after election, the ANC has hung on to its past glory and kept its place in the hearts of most South Africans. This time around, though, it’s not enough,” the Mail and Guardian newspaper said in an editorial. On social media, South Africans mocked President Jacob Zuma’s recent claim that the ANC would rule ‘until Jesus comes back’. 

The ANC already has lost its first major black-majority municipality in this election, Nelson Mandela Bay, named for the ANC’s star and the country’s first black president.