IEC voting centre.
JOHANNESBURG - As the vote counting process reaches its final stretch, South Africa is seeing a historic shift in voting patterns.
Results coming in from KwaZulu-Natal show that the uMkhonto WeSizwe (MK) Party, will topple both the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress, taking 43% of the votes.
The IFP won the elections in that province in 1994 but more recent years the ANC consolidated its power there.
eNCA elections analyst Wayne Sussman projected that MK’s dominance in KwaZulu-Natal was partially due to a relatively high voter turnout in the province.
Voter turnout
Political analyst, Justice Malala, said the vote for MK could be attributed to ANC supporters feeling disgruntled.
“People have heard enough of the ANC’s promises. They don’t think the party has delivered. They’ve given it a lot of time so, when someone like Jacob Zuma came along, that anger convinced them to support him.”
With more than a million people having already voted for Zuma, support for the EFF has waned.
“The EFF changed its stance on various issues that pushed people away. One example is the firing of several KwaZulu-Natal leaders who didn’t pitch up for the FNB rally,” Malala explained.
Meanwhile, on a national level, the ANC will remain the dominant party but with support well below 50%.
The DA will continue as the main opposition party while MK will push out the EFF to become the third biggest party in the country.
Denga Mavhunga is a member of the eNCA Academy of Journalism