Follow IOL for up-to-date results from the National and Provincial Elections 2024.
ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe says the results of the MK party in KwaZulu-Natal have taken them by surprise. He insists the party will still secure over 50% of the vote.
Early indications are that Jacob Zuma's fledgling MK party is going to give the ANC a bloody nose in KwaZulu-Natal and possibly reduce its majority, if not take the province.
Mantashe says the ANC will swim successfully in these elections. He said they will develop a strategy to deal with the threat MKP.
He shot down claims of lack of service delivery as ANCs numbers declined in KZN.
MKP is currently leading the KZN in terms of numbers.
- Kamogelo Moichela / IOL
10am - Update on the latest numbers so far
Western Cape update by 10am and 1.08% of votes counted national legislature and 6.62% for the provincial legislature. For the counting for the National Assembly saw the DA with 50.08% and 2.110, the ANC with 21.53% and 907 votes and PA had 17.53% (739 votes). Meanwhile, the Provincial Legislature had 6.62% of votes counted. It saw the DA with 56.49% (31,797 votes) of the support, followed by the ANC with 14.35% (8,079 votes) and the PA with 13.49% (7,596 votes).
CSIR projects major 15% drop for ANC
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has predicted the final results for the elections, with the elections forecasters projecting a massive 15% drop for the ANC.
Professor Pravesh Debba of the CSIR, said their model was predicting the final votes tally could reflect a 42% tally for the ANC, 22% for the DA, 12.8% for the MK and 9% for the EFF.
At the time of the prediction, the ANC had 41.5% of the vote, the DA had 28.18%, EFF had 7.7%, the MK had 7% and the PA had under 2%.
The PA was also expected to drop off.
The CSIR made its prediction at 8.5% of the votes counted. In the 2019 elections, their prediction was just 2% off the mark for the major established parties. They explained that projections were difficult for new parties like the MK as they had no data to compare to. Prof Debba said the projection of the MK could be well overstated by the model due to no previous data to assist the model.
Explaining the difficulty of new parties, in 2014 for the EFFs first elections, the model predicted 3-4%, but the EFF secured double at 8.39%.
The CSIR has been predicting elections since 1999, with a high degree of accuracy.
National vote tallying has quickly reached the 10% mark before 8am on Thursday.
Most of the votes are trickling in from smaller voting districts around the country.
At 10.02% of the count, the ANC was tracking well below 50% at around 42% - with just under 300,000 votes. The DA was steady at second place with 26.34% or 207,779, EFF at 8.1% or 63,932, the MK at 7.6% or 60,115 and the PA at 4.9% or 38,805.
MK Party slams IEC over Section 24 issues
The MK party has slammed the IEC for mismanaging the ongoing electoral process by undermining the constitutional rights of all South Africans to freely choose their government. They say the commission showed lack of competence by ignoring to communicate critical changes to the Electoral Act, specifically Section 24, with regards to changes in law about how people could only vote where they were registered.
The MKs head of elections, Muzi Ntshingila, said this change was poorly communicated merely days before the elections, leading to widespread confusion and disenchantment among the electorate.
Such missteps not only compromise the electoral process but also frustrated citizens whose primary concern is a change towards a better life from the pains of the (President Cyril) Ramaphosa-ANC, he said.
They also called on IEC top management to resign for bringing the organisation into disrepute.
8am - National Assembly results are 8.5 percent complete
The ANC had 41.77 percent of the support, followed by the DA with 27.52 percent and the EFF with 7.72 percent.
While too early to make predictions, the current ruling party, although slightly below the 2019 results, maintains the lead.
The African National Congress (ANC) had 249,045 votes and 41.77% of the support, followed by the Democratic Alliances 27.52% with 164,061 votes and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has 7.72% of support with 46,015 votes.
New kid on the political block, uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) were in fourth place with 7.54% (44,980) followed by the Patriotic Alliance (PA) with 4.56% (27,175). Read more here
6am - Late night voting chaos as thousands vote into Thursday as IEC voter devices glitch
Thousands of voters around the country were still in queues after 12am on Thursday waiting to cast their votes after the May 29 elections were rocked by snaking queues around the country, particularly in the metros of Durb
