The African National Congress looked set to deliver its worst ever electoral performance since the end of apartheid, with support expected to dip below 50%in local government polls. With more than half of polling stations reporting following Monday’s fiercely contested elections, the African National Congress stood at slightly under 46 percent of the vote, according to electoral commission figures. The municipal elections had been widely viewed as a referendum on the ANC, tainted by corruption and facing a backlash over poor stewardship of an ailing economy beset by chronically high unemployment, and on its uninterrupted 27 years in charge of Africa’s most industrialised nation. The ANC has blamed the poor showing on the coronavirus pandemic, apathy and electricity blackouts imposed by the country’s energy utility Eskom.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN