The leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), John Steenhuisen was all smiles after predictions that once the count is over the the African National Congress (ANC) will take less than 50% of the vote for the first time in 30 years.
The DA is currently in second place, with nearly 23% of the votes counted.
“This is democracy and that delights me from my head to my toes,” he said.
Thoughts are now turning to coalition maths.
Mr Steenhuisen told the media that the DA is “very pleased” with the trajectory so far and the DA will continue to be a “major player”.
Before the election, the DA has signed a pact with 10 other parties, agreeing to form a coalition government if they collectively get enough votes to dislodge the ANC from power. But this did not include the EFF or the MK of Jacob Zuma.
And Mr Steenhuisen shut down the idea of a coalition with Zuma’s MK party.
“We will only do coalitions [with parties] that share our values and principles,” he told the eNCA news channel.
He added that Mr Zuma’s MK party has “no respect for the constitution”.
The DA leader said a coalition with MK would be “unstable and incompatible”.
