Gwede Mantashe Claims ANC Will Win, Despite Not Looking Confident
- In early KZN election results, the MK party led by Jacob Zuma is ahead with 41.77% of the vote, while the ANC is second with 21.06%
- ANC Chairperson Gwede Mantashe, surprised by MK's performance, blamed journalists for the ANC's decline and vowed to counter the MK threat
- The outcome remains to be seen as vote counting continues
Reitumetse Makwea, a Briefly News current affairs journalist in Pretoria, South Africa, has covered local elections, policy changes, the State of the Nation Address, and political news at The Citizen and Rekord Noweto for over five years.
Source: Original
Gwede Mantashe, the African National Congress (ANC) Chairperson, attended the National Rock with an air of confidence for the counting process.
But his demeanor soon changed as early election results from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) rolled in.
Despite leading nationally, in not so many words Mantashe noted the ANC was shaken by the MKP's success over the province.
See the post below:
The Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) election dashboard, with just 20% of voting stations covered, showed a surprising lead for the MK party, spearheaded by former president Jacob Zuma.
Preliminary election results
According to the preliminary figures, the MK party secured 41.77% of the vote, amounting to 92,378 votes.
The ANC trailed significantly with 21.06% (49 278) votes), while the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) garnered 17.08% (46 822 votes).
The Democratic Alliance (DA) followed closely with 13.46%.
See the post on X by Briefly News journalist Reitumetse Makwea:
Mantashe is confident in MKP's win but shaken
Speaking on the sidelines at the National Results Operations Centre, Mantashe admitted his surprise at the MK party's performance in KZN.
He conceded and welcomed the MKP's success in the province after many South Africans took to the pools yesterday.
“MK is doing well in KZN, they have surprised me, but I am not expecting the same in other provinces.”
Mantashe also took the opportunity to critique the media, accusing journalists of contributing to the ANC's decline.
He singled out a television news station for repeatedly using “vote for change” headlines throughout election day.
“When journalists do that, they seize to be journalists, they become pundits.”
“We are going to swim against that stream, we are streaming against it and we are going to be successful.”
ANC has been leading
Despite the setback, Mantashe remained resolute, indicating that the ANC would devise a strategy to address the growing influence of the MKP.
The coming days are expected to reveal whether this early lead will hold and how it might impact the political landscape in KZN and beyond.
As the vote count continues, the ANC's ability to recover from this unexpected challenge will be closely watched, with analysts speculating on the potential long-term implications for South Africa's political dynamics.
Voters still making a mark on the unofficial second-day
Briefly News reported that the collapse of IEC systems on the crucial day of elections resulted in widespread frustration.
This caused a nationwide delay in voting and one social media user revealed that he ended up voting the following day.
The elections have been marred by similar incidents and voters have called on the IEC to provide some answers.
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Source: Briefly News
