Opposition Wins South African Capital City's Mayoral Job

Johannesburg, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Nov, 2021 ) :South Africa's ruling ANC party on Tuesday lost the mayoral race for the capital in the latest defeat following municipal elections -- a drubbing that President Cyril Ramaphosa described as "a big lesson." The Democratic Alliance's Randall Williams was elected mayor of Pretoria, a day after the African National Congress (ANC) lost control of Johannesburg, the country's economic hub and largest city.

Local elections on November 1 saw the ANC suffer its worst showing at the ballot box since the advent of democracy in 1994.

Nationwide, it garnered only 46 percent of the votes cast.

"It is disappointing," said Ramaphosa at a joint news conference he hosted with visiting Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

"This for us is a big setback, but also it is also a big lesson," he said. "What is unfolding is how democracy works".

But his counterpart Kenyatta lauded the development as a sign of "mature" democracy.

"As South Africans, you should be very proud and happy with yourselves that you have a mature democracy. What you see here is not very common in many other parts of the world," said Kenyatta on a three day working visist to South Africa.

The DA has been the country's largest opposition party for nearly two decades.