Cape Town – The ANC has called off its National Working Committee meeting that was supposed to kick off on Friday to discuss its electoral losses and coalition partners in the hung municipalities and key metros.
The IEC said yesterday there were 66 hung municipalities in the country.
The ANC had called an extended NWC meeting today, but it has been called off and instead the party would have a special National Executive Committee meeting on Sunday.
The ruling party has been left bruised by the polls where its support dropped to 46%.
This is the first time that the ANC’s support nationally has dropped below 50%.
The meeting of the NEC on Sunday would map a way forward for the ruling party.
It said it has already begun informal discussions with some of the parties.
The IFP and the DA are also meeting this weekend after the former scored some major victories in KwaZulu-Natal and took over some municipalities that were under the ANC.
The DA, although it retained Cape Town, it had a reduced majority there but was leading the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay.
The DA is eyeing some of the metros in Gauteng. It governed the City of Joburg in a coalition from 2016 until former mayor Herman Mashaba left the party in 2019 to form ActionSA.
It has been governing the City of Tshwane. But no party has obtained an outright majority in the three Gauteng metros and they are all talking to possible coalition partners to form new councils.
The law requires that councils must be constituted within 14 days after the election results have been announced.
It is going to be a long and tough two weeks for the parties before new municipal councils are constituted.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Political Bureau