South African Ruling ANC Party Loses Country's Capital to Democratic Alliance

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has been defeated by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in the elections in the Tshwane municipality, where the country's capital Pretoria is located, the election results showed.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Electoral Commission of South Africa data show that in Tshwane the DA leads with 43.11 percent, as the ANC trails with 41.22 percent. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) come third with 11.7 percent.

The DA also leads in the municipality of Midvaal, also situated in the Gauteng province, with 59.7 percent against the ANC's 32.08 percent.

The ANC leads in five of Gauteng's nine municipalities, as the results for two of them are still yet to be announced.

In the current elections, the ANC has demonstrated its weakest performance in over 20 years.

More than 200 political parties and 61,000 candidates are participating in South African municipal elections, which are the fifth in a row in the country.