The 2024 general elections reached a historic conclusion which sees the end of South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) 30-year-old outright majority, winning only 159 seats in the 400-seat parliament, according to the official results released on Sunday evening.
Also read: Historic shift in 2024 elections: ANC’s 30-year majority ends, coalition talks begin
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) officially announced the results of the country’s seventh democratic general elections at an event in Midrand, Johannesburg.
At around 10pm on Saturday, the capturing of the final results stood at 100%, reported Business Tech. However, the IEC was attending to 579 objections after it had extended the deadline for objections to counting and capturing.
‘These elections were undoubtedly the most highly contested,’ said IEC Chairperson Mosotho Moepya, who declared the elections free and fair during his address.
‘As a nation, we have emerged triumphant, having conducted these elections with the utmost transparency, fairness and adherence to the highest standards of democratic practice.’
President Cyril Ramaphosa and the leaders of most of the opposition parties attended the event, but, in a sign he intends to challenge the result, former president Jacob Zuma was not in attendance.
Watch the 2024 national and provincial election results announcement:
With the ANC securing 39.77% of the 16 025 198 votes cast (with a 58.61% turnout rate) across the country on Wednesday, 29 May 2024, no political party emerged as an outright winner. As a result, the party must seek coalition partnerships in order to play a role in the formation of the seventh administration.
As per SA Gov News, the parties which received the most votes and thus garnered seats in the 400-member National Assembly are as follows:
- African National Congress (ANC) – 159 seats.
- Democratic Alliance (DA) – 87 seats.
- uMkhonto weSizwe party (MK party) – 58 seats.
- Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – 39 seats.
- Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – 17 seats.
- Patriotic Alliance (PA) – 9 seats.
- Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) – 6 seats.
- ActionSA – 6 seats.
- African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) – 3 seats.
- United Democratic Movement (UDM) – 3 seats.
- African Transformation Movement (ATM) – 2 seats.
- Al Jama-ah – 2 seats.
- Build One South Africa (BOSA) – 2 seats.
- National Coloured Congress (NCC) – 2 seats.
- Rise Mzansi – 2 seats
- GOOD Party – 1 seat
- Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) – 1 seat
- United Africans Transformation (UTM) – 1 seat
The winners of the National Assembly votes by each region are as follows (percentages as of 7pm on Sunday):
- Eastern Cape – ANC with 62.42% of the vote, 16 seats.
- Free State – ANC with 52.56% of the vote, 6 seats.
- Gauteng – ANC with 34.62% of the vote, 17 seats.
- KwaZulu-Natal – MK Party with 44.91% of the vote, 19 seats
- Mpumalanga – ANC with 51.31% of the vote, 8 seats.
- Northern Cape – ANC with 49.47% of the vote, 3 seats.
- Limpopo – ANC with 73.38% of the vote, 16 seats.
- North West – ANC 58.29% of the vote, 8 seats.
- Western Cape – DA with 53.37% of the vote, 14 seats
The winners of the provincial legislatures are as follows:
- Eastern Cape – ANC to lead the legislature with 45 seats won.
- Free State – ANC to lead the legislature with 16 seats won.
- Gauteng – ANC to lead the legislature with 28 seats won.
- KwaZulu-Natal – MK Party to lead the legislature with 37 seats won.
- Mpumalanga – ANC to lead the legislature with 27 won.
- Northern Cape – ANC to lead the legislature with 15 seats won
- Limpopo – ANC to lead the legislature with 48 seats won.
- North West – ANC to lead the legislature with 23 seats won.
- Western Cape – DA to lead the legislature with 24 seats won.
As reported by News24, the DA garnered 24 seats while the ANC secured 8, the PA received 3, the EFF got 2 and the ACDP, Al Jama-ah, the GOOD Party, Rise Mzansi and FF Plus each secured one seat in the Western Cape.
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Picture: Sydney Seshibedi / Gallo Images