President Cyril Ramaphosa’s popularity appears to have saved the ANC as some voters split their votes, choosing him in the national ballot but snubbing his party in the provincial vote.
A trend in which voters split their national and provincial votes, in support of Ramaphosa nationally, emerged in Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, with more than half of all voting districts declared by Thursday night.