North West Premier Thandi Modise has applauded voters who came out in their numbers to exercise their democratic right in the national and provincial elections held on Wednesday.

“The high voter turnout in most areas and participation of first time voters shows confidence in participatory democracy. Beyond elections, we should sustain the enthusiasm though regular constructive engagements and feedback on implementation of government’s programmes of action in order to deepen our democracy,” Premier Modise said.

Modise said the provincial government is determined to address all issues that were brought to its attention in the run-up to the elections adding that violent protests are not the answer to addressing issues that affect communities.

“We have not received reports of employers denying workers the right to exercise their constitutional right to vote and wish to express our profound appreciation for the positive response to our earlier plea,” she said.-TDN
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Johannesburg – Election results streamed in steadily across the country overnight and early on Thursday morning, but the two major cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town lagged behind.

Nationally, a total of over 5.4 million votes had been counted by 09:00.

The Western Cape was in a better position than Gauteng, where the metropole had reported a little vote counting by dawn and the City of Johannesburg still had to submit data.

Of the 2.9m registered voters in the Western Cape, just over 1.1m votes had been counted on the national ballot and 1.1m on the provincial ballot by 08:00.

In Gauteng, with over six million registered voters, 297 950 national ballots and 284 898 provincial ballot votes had been counted by around 07:30.

Provincial votes

And while the city of Johannesburg was moving at a snail’s pace to provide data, the Tshwane metro – with more than 1.4m registered voters – had seen less than 1 500 votes counted by about 07:30.

The Emfuleni municipality, south of Johannesburg, was also proportionately slow as 13 772 national votes and 13 511 provincial votes had been counted out of 358 891 registered voters.

Ekurhuleni, with 1 547 459 registered voters, had yet to cross the 10% mark in vote counting.

Vote counting for the other municipalities in Gauteng, including Mogale City, Lesedi, Randfontein, Midvaal, Westonaria, and Merafong City moved at a faster pace, given their smaller sizes.

Leading the election race was the African National Congress which had surpassed the three million votes mark before 09:00.

The Democratic Alliance followed with more than a million votes.

The ANC had 3.2m votes, making up 60.4% of all counted votes.

The DA had 1.3m votes, making up 25.6% of counted votes.

The Economic Freedom Fighters had 4.3% of the votes [233 226] thus far, and the Inkatha Freedom Party 2.1% [116 574].

Parties

The Freedom Front Plus secured 1.11% of the national vote [59 437] so far, and closely behind was the United Democratic Movement with 1% [54 219].

Some political parties were struggling for survival with less than a percentage point of the national vote.

The Congress of the People was standing at 0.82% [44 183], while it was not clear yet if Agang SA would have enough support to secure a seat in Parliament.

By 09:00 Agang SA had only secured 0.20% [10 841] of the national vote.

The Workers and Socialist Party stood at 0.05% [2 778 votes] and the Pan Africanist Movement 0.02% [1 342].

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils stood in a queue for over thirty minutes to cast his vote on Wednesday, according to a City Press report.

“I voted for two parties, nationally and provincially, but not the ANC or the DA,” he said.
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Pretoria – The African National Congress passed the million vote mark after 04:30 on Thursday morning in the fifth democratic election in South Africa.

The early results at 04:40 showed the ANC had 1 100 891 votes, the Democratic Alliance had 623 234 votes, the Economic Freedom Fighters 73 723 votes and the United Democratic Movement 19 883 votes.

Representatives of the various political parties remained at the centre to keep an eye on the results as they continued to be updated.

The Freedom Front Plus had 26 271 votes, the Congress of the People 14 510, Inkatha Freedom Party 39 046, Agang SA 4 437 and the National Freedom Party 26 608.

The Workers Socialist Party had 1 007 votes, the African Christian Democratic Party 13 721, the African Independent Congress 11 244 and the African Peoples Convention had 3 353 votes.

Al Jama-Ah had 4 501 votes, Azanian Peoples Organisation 2 030, Bushbuckridge Residents Association 1 234, First Nation Liberation Alliance 491 and the Front National 662.

The Independent Civic Organisation of SA had 3 397 votes, Keep It Straight and Simple 414, Kingdom Governance Movement 752, Minority Front 1 135, and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania had 3 293 votes.

The Pan Africanist Movement had 435, Patriotic Alliance 3 732, Peoples Alliance 226, the Ubuntu Party 980, the United Christian Democratic Party 1 661, and the United Congress had 313 votes.-Sapa

Nkandla – S’thandiwe Hlongwane’s brick house lies only a stone’s throw from South African President Jacob Zuma’s private home but the two hardly belong in the same country, let alone the same village.

Like most homes in Nkandla, in the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal, Hlongwane’s is concrete and basic.
For more http://www.iol.co.za