ANC suffered defeat in local elections and experts are calling the defeat, the Zuma effect.
The African National Congress on Saturday suffered an unprecedented defeat in local elections with people of South Africa handing out a diminished vote share to a party they relate with country's anti-apartheid and liberation struggle.
The ANC suffered a narrow defeat in capital Johannesburg at the hands of the Democratic Alliance which garnered 43.1 per cent votes over ANC's 41.2 per cent.
President Jacob Zuma attended the result announcement at the IEC Results Centre in Pretoria.
'The elected representatives must govern on behalf and in best interest of all South Africans. They must build an accessible local government regardless of which party controls the municipality,' Mr Zuma said shortly after the results were final.
Experts are calling the defeat, the Zuma effect.
As he was called to the podium to speak, four ladies held a silent protest right in front of him holding placards that read, 'Remember Khewzi'. Khwezi had accused Jacob Zuma of rape, a case in which Mr Zuma was acquitted. The protesting women were later escorted away by his security personnel.
Though ANC suffered a pounding in most big cities, they still garnered votes in rural areas.
Nicholas Dawes, Chief Content Editor at Hindustan Times, a South African expert told NDTV, "The rural people still relate to it as a party of freedom fighters but the urban have begun to see that ANC is corrupt. We will see the ANC reconsidering their leadership."
The opposition Democratic Alliance that also has roots in the anti-apartheid movement has made significant gains in previous ANC strongholds. For the first time ever, DA has beaten ANC in the Nelson Mandela Bay by 5 per cent. The DA performed very well in Johannesburg and Pretoria apart from its Cape Town stronghold too, a shift in power seen as beginning of the fall of Mr Zuma.
Since South Africa's first all-race election in 1994, the ANC has had widespread support based on the anti-white minority rule, but this time, its hold has been weakened by corruption scandals and a stagnant economy that has frustrated the urban middle class, while the poor communities demand better services.