Ramaphosa weighs resignation after ANC's weak election result

President Cyril Ramaphosa and senior African National Congress leaders are discussing whether to resign from top party positions after the ANC's poor showing in Wednesday's local government elections. The party received 30.8 percent of the national vote after 99 percent of ballots were counted, placing it ahead of the Democratic Alliance at 24 percent.

ActionSA is pressing the Democratic Alliance to remove Helen Zille as its Johannesburg mayoral candidate and install Herman Mashaba instead. The move follows ActionSA's strong performance in Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.

“Two objections have been upheld. In other words, these two have been found to have an impact or to be material to the outcome of the result.”

The Electoral Commission of South Africa has ordered recounts in five wards while processing 197 election objections. By Saturday at 3pm, 54 objections had been dismissed and two had been upheld because they were found to be material to the outcome.

The MK Party is challenging the vote count in Durban, saying it is being shut out of governing eThekwini. Preliminary results show the party short of an outright majority, leaving rivals able to exclude it from government for the second time in two years.

Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape has become the country's fourth hung council. Results for three other metropolitan councils remain outstanding, with the ANC leading at 41.93 percent, followed by the United Democratic Movement at 18.39 percent and the Democratic Alliance at 16.85 percent.

Internal ANC polling had warned leaders of the looming disaster before the vote, though party officials appeared unable to prevent the outcome.