ANC wins South African local elections

South African President Thabo Mbeki tonight vowed to repay the confidence shown by voters in the ruling African National Congress and speed up delivery of services to millions of poor blacks.

The ANC won 223 councils with 66.3% of the vote, according to final results issued tonight, compared with 59% at the last elections in 2000.

The white-led Democratic Alliance won 10 councils with 14.7% of the vote.

The ANC’s victory was better than expected given the protests in recent months over corrupt local government officials and slow progress in improving housing, sanitation and other basics.

Rounding on his critics, Mbeki said the election outcome proved that South Africans had faith in the ANC, which has governed since the start of multiparty democracy in 1994.

“The task ahead of us is to do everything in our power to honour the commitment we made to the people to implement our plan to make local government work better for all our people,” he said in a statement.

“In this regard, the ANC will not disappoint the expectations of the people or in any way betray the confidence of these masses in our movement.”

South Africa has made huge economic, political and social strides in the 12 years since the end of apartheid.

The government has built nearly 2 million new homes for impoverished black South Africans, and dramatically improved services like sanitation, electricity and education.

But there has been mounting anger at the slow rate of progress.

Some 16 million people out of 45 million remain without adequate sanitation, 3.7 million have no access to clean water and there are still shack settlements in most towns and villages.

The ANC suffered its only real setback in Cape Town, where it lost control of the city council and came in second to the Democratic Alliance.

A smaller third party, the Independent Democrats, held the balance of power, and talks were continuing on the future shape of the city government.