By Doreen Mokgolo
ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe said that he is not scared of the election outcome, with just over 16% of the votes counted nationally by midday on Thursday.
By then, uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) led in KwaZulu-Natal with 69,022 votes, while the ANC had 35,220.
“The MK is doing well in KZN. They surprised me, but I am not expecting the same performance in other provinces,” Mantashe said in an interview with Scrolla.Africa.
“If MK is a threat to the ANC in the province, we will develop a strategy that counters that attack.
“I am expecting a recovery as the IEC has only counted just over one million votes. We will see what happens as the day progresses.”
Mantashe feels the ANC could do much better than where it is now and blames the media for driving the drop in the party’s performance.
“While voters were in the queues, media houses were reporting on ‘vote for change,’ convincing voters to vote out the ANC,” he said.
“The outcome of the results will tell us if we are going to start with coalition talks.”
IFP MP Mkhuleko Mhlengwa said it is too early to determine whether the party performed poorly in the province.
“Votes in our strong areas, especially villages, are yet to be counted, which will improve our performance,” he said.
By midday, nationally, the ANC was leading with 770,889 votes, followed by the DA with 452,945, the EFF with 154,378, and MK trailing closely with 145,056 votes.
Pictured above: Gwede Mantashe.
Image source: Doreen Mokgolo
