With virtually all the votes counted, the Independent Electoral Commission reported December 8 that the African National Congress (ANC) had emerged with 60 percent of the total vote.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) gained 23 percent of the votes and the Inkatha Freedom Party 9 percent, with the African Christian Democratic Party, United Democratic Movement, Pan Africanist Congress, and other smaller parties receiving the balance.

The ultraright fared dismally. In Pretoria, said to be a stronghold for parties such as the Freedom Front, a rightist coalition failed to win a single ward.

The ANC, the ruling party in the national government, will take control of the majority of local councils and five of six new metropolitan councils--Johannesburg, Tshwane (Pretoria), East Rand, Port Elizabeth, and Durban. The Democratic Alliance won a majority in the Cape Town council.  
 
End of apartheid-era town planning
This election marked the burial of the remnants of apartheid town planning, which divided the wealthy white cities and suburbs from working-class black townships and impoverished rural areas in terms of basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation. The number of municipal councils falls from 843 to 234. A number of district councils will now have powers over large areas surrounding cities such as Bloemfontein and East London.

In practice, this means another barrier has fallen for working people in black townships and rural areas to have access to basic services historically denied them.

The mostly white opposition parties, and "ratepayers' associations" in many areas, protested against the new demarcation, arguing that middle-class white areas should not have to "subsidize" townships and rural areas. They were overruled.

Such sentiment, however, crystallized in the vote for the Democratic Alliance--created by a merger of the Democratic Party, New National Party, and Freedom Alliance earlier this year. The merged entity acted as a lightning rod for resentment against the continuing deracialization of South Africa, in particular the fact that exclusive privileges for whites in employment, education, housing, and every other facet of life are coming to an end.

The DA campaigned against corruption and "crime," with an election poster that read, "Nail them and jail them." It also made much of a claim that it would provide free anti-retroviral drugs for people with AIDS in areas it won, attacking the position of the ANC-led government until recently that it would not provide such medication. They kept its opposition to affirmative action low-key.

The party drew support from a large number of so-called Coloreds--particularly in Cape Town--and Indians. A small number of Africans also cast their vote for the DA.

Claims by the Democratic Alliance, echoed in the big-business press worldwide, that the party's strength grew sharply among Africans are exaggerated. For example, in Mamelodi township, eastern Pretoria, the DA polled 822 votes against 35,433 for the ANC. In contrast, in the 28 mostly white wards the DA won in Pretoria, the ANC still managed to garner 23,653 votes

"The ANC can no longer claim the mantle of credible change in the country...that must now go to the DA," crowed Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, a former propagandist in the apartheid military. The party's deputy leader and former head of the New National Party, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, claimed the results showed that the "liberation cycle" in South Africa would be much shorter than in other countries.

In a December 8 editorial, London's Financial Times said that "a better-than-expected score for the opposition Democratic Alliance shows encouraging cracks. This is a welcome move towards a two-party democracy. The result should jolt the ruling African National Congress out of any complacency and provide encouragement to a hitherto fragmented opposition."

In contrast, Marco Granelli wrote in this city's major English-language daily, the Pretoria News, that "claims that the DA has made significant inroads into traditional ANC strongholds do not bear up to closer scrutiny." In contrast to Leon's assertion that the DA had secured a "foothold," Granelli said that "if anything, the party has managed to establish a 'toehold' in black townships."

The big-business press here presents a picture of declining voter numbers, which it said mark both apathy and a protest against the failure of the ANC to "deliver." In fact, while the percentage of the 18 million registered voters was lower than in both previous elections, it was almost exactly the same as that of the 1995-96 municipal election.

A common sentiment among African working people here is, "We will never vote for the party of our oppressors." Former ANC president Nelson Mandela told a rally of union members in Johannesburg on December 2, in reference to the Democratic Alliance, that "no white party can run this country." He emphasized, "No matter how they cover up by getting a few black stooges, they remain the bosses ... they remain a white party."

It was noticeable, however, that many township residents stayed away from the voting booths. It is this fact that accounted for the increase for the DA of four or five percentage points in this poll compared to the total of its constituent parts last year.  
 
Decisive majority for ANC
At a victory celebration attended by several hundred people on December 7, ANC president Thabo Mbeki said, "The truth is that the ANC has won the votes of 60 percent of our people, a decisive majority achieved despite the complacency of many of our supporters." He added, "The ANC has achieved a popular victory in the face of a coordinated attack carried out by an unholy alliance of many parties, united by hatred for the ANC, rather than any commitment to serve the interests of the people."

Reiterating the ANC's commitment to providing basic economic services to the majority, Mbeki said, "By the positions they have taken in free and fair elections, the people have made the categorical statement that: they are opposed to the continued racial divisions and disparities in our country and stand for a nonracial South Africa."  
 
 
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