The chairperson of the African National Congress in Gauteng‚ Paul Mashatile‚ has conceded that the substantial decline of support for the ruling party could be an indication that voters were not happy with some issues. Speaking at the provincial results centre in Johannesburg‚ Mashatile said the ANC wanted to win with an outright majority like all the other parties but that did not happen.“In some of the municipalities we are happy that we have won outrightly but in some we have not. That is what democracy is all about. What we need to do now is to obviously reflect about what are the issues that the voters are concerned about. We will not move quickly into blaming this or that. We need to reflect and go back to the voters and find out what are the issues they want us to really deal with‚” Mashatile said.For the first time in the history of the democratic era in South Africa‚ the ANC in Gauteng faces a possible threat of losing all three major metros to the Democratic Alliance if the latter forms a coalition with other parties. DA leader Mmusi Maimane has already indicated that discussions would start to enable the party to lead Johannesburg‚ Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.Mashatile said the ANC will go back to get feedback on the issues that made the ANC lose such support.“Once we go back‚ they will say‚ well guys‚ we did not vote for you because we are not happy about this and we will see how we change those things. That is what democracy is all about.”He also admitted that voter turnout affected the ANC’s performance in areas where it enjoys a lot of dominance.“From just the cursory look at things in some of our traditional strong base we had a lower turnout. Even though we may have won a lot of wards in our traditional base‚ but it may have been with a smaller margin .We need to go back and find out why‚” Mashatile concluded.-TMG Digital..