ANC wins Mpumalanga as EFF ousts DA to become official opposition

The EFF has unseated the DA as the official opposition in the Mpumalanga legislature - while the ANC retained control of the province.

The red berets received 12.79% of the 1.2-million votes cast in the province, more than double the support they enjoyed in 2014. The DA came in third with 9.77%, a marginal decline from the 10.4% obtained in the province in 2014.

PODCAST: Smaller parties suspect fraud

Although the results have not officially been announced, the Electoral Commission had by Friday afternoon completed its count and verified results in Mpumalanga, according to its live results dashboard.

The ANC retained its top spot with a comfortable 70.5%. However, this was about 8% less than in the previous election.

About 1.2-million people cast their ballots in the province, which amounted to a 63.2% voter turnout. There were 17,022 spoilt ballots.