South Africa polls: Coalition talks on horizon as Nelson Mandela's ANC loses majority

• Results show ANC with 41% votes and DA in second place with 21%.
• Election officials announce to reveal poll verdict on Sunday.
• Newly-formed National Assembly will then elect country's president.

PRETORIA/CAPE TOWN: Political parties in South Africa have geared up for coalition talks as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is on course to lose its three-decade-old majority with 85% of ballots counted.

The country went to vote on Wednesday in the most competitive election since the end of apartheid, amid high turnout with the people voting to elect provincial assemblies in each of the country's nine provinces and a new national parliament which will then choose the next president.

So far, results show that President Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC has only 41.12% support, a catastrophic slump from the 57.5% it won in 2019.

Apart from ANC's key rival Democratic Alliance (DA) party which won the second-largest share of the vote in the last election in 2019, other opposition parties hoping to loosen the ANC's grip on power include the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) founded by Julius Malema.

The data from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) showed the centre-right DA held second place with 21.95% of the votes.

In third place was former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) at 12.6%, a surprise score for a party founded just months ago.

The radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) was in fourth with 9.4%.

The final results are expected at the weekend, but with the trends clear, politicians and pundits were turning their attention to the prospects of an ANC-led coalition.

By law the election commission has seven days to release full provisional results, but elections officials have said they are planning for a Sunday announcement.

ANC's fall marks a historic turning point for South Africa as the party had enjoyed an absolute majority since 1994 when liberation leader Nelson Mandela led the nation out of white-minority rule and into democracy.

Whats happens now?

Political parties' share of the vote will determine the number of seats they get in the National Assembly, which then elects the next president.

That could still be the ANC's leader, incumbent President Ramaphosa. However, an embarrassing showing at the polls risks fuelling a leadership challenge.

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday that the ANC still wanted to win a majority. "A coalition is not our plan; it is a consequence. We will deal with that consequence when it happens," he said.

Investors and the business community have voiced concern over the prospect of the ANC entering a coalition with the EFF, which is calling for the seizure of white-owned land and the nationalisation of mines and banks, or with Zuma's MK which also talks about land confiscation.

Though the DA says it wants to oust the ruling party, its leader John Steenhuisen has not ruled out a partnership to block what he has called a "doomsday coalition" with the ANC bringing the EFF or MK into government.

Mandela's grandson, Mandla Mandela, an outgoing ANC lawmaker, told AFP the DA held "different ideals" making it too difficult to partner with.

The radical left groups led by former ANC figures such as Malema's EFF or Zuma's MK, were more likely bedfellows, he said.

Analyst and author Susan Booysen, said the EFF was perceived as "too erratic" and "unpredictable" in its demands.

And the rift between Ramaphosa and Zuma — who has long been bitter about the way he was forced out of office in 2018 — was "too far reaching" to mend, she said.

MK spokesman Nhlamulo Ndhlela seemed to agree and has said that the party "would not engage in a discussion with the ANC", as long as Ramaphosa was leader.

"We will engage with the ANC but not the ANC of Cyril Ramaphosa," he said.

Any coalition partner should be willing to amend the constitution to enact radical reforms and grant Zuma, who has been declared ineligible over a contempt of court conviction, a pardon, Ndhlela said.

"We will bring President Zuma back in his National Assembly (and) put him back as president, as simple as that," he added.