[Source: Reuters]

South Africans angry at joblessness, inequality and power shortages slashed support for the African National Congress (ANC) to 40% in this week’s election, ending three decades of dominance by the party that freed the country from apartheid.

A dramatically weakened mandate for the legacy party of Nelson Mandela, down from the 57.5% it garnered in the 2019 parliamentary election, means the ANC must share power with a rival in order to keep it – an unprecedented prospect.

Counting from Wednesday’s poll was almost complete on Saturday, with results from 99.8% of polling stations giving the ANC 40.19% of the vote.

The ANC had won every national election by a landslide since the historic 1994 vote that ended white minority rule, but over the last decade its support has dwindled as the economy stagnated, unemployment rose and roads and power stations crumbled.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), had 21.81% support while uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former President Jacob Zuma, managed to grab 14.59%. The far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, got 9.5%.

Despite doing better than almost anyone expected, MK said it was considering challenging the results in court.

Ndhlela said MK had evidence that the election commission’s system was rigged, without producing any.

Analysts have long feared Zuma’s party may stir up trouble if his supporters – who rioted and looted for days when he was arrested for contempt of court in 2021 – reject the results.

MK’s strong performance, especially in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal, is one of the main reasons the ANC failed to secure a majority.

Earlier on Saturday, the EFF’s Malema accepted the outcome of the election.

Analysts say one option for the ANC could be a “government of national unity” involving a broad spectrum of many parties, rather than a formal coalition among a few – an arrangement similar the one set up after 1994’s historic all-race vote.