The African National Congress, in power since South Africa`s first all-race elections 17 years ago, will almost certainly cruise to victory given the massive public support it still enjoys for bringing down white-minority rule.
But the ANC and its leader, President Jacob Zuma, could be embarrassed by gains for the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which runs Cape Town and has campaigned as the party that can deliver municipal services.
The DA, once associated with white privilege and now trying to reinvent itself as a party that provides good governance for all, said it was confident of securing more votes than in the 2006 local elections, when it took about 14 percent of votes.
Polls closed at 1700 GMT, the first results were expected late on Wednesday, and final results on Friday.
What once looked like a dull campaign for control of 278 municipalities, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, heated up as a row over the toilets, whose users are exposed to public view, dominated headlines.
The ANC scored political points a few months ago when it found the DA had not built walls around public toilets in shantytowns in an area it controlled.
But the ANC itself came under fire when it was revealed just before the vote that it too had failed to build such walls in a town it controlled, and that a local ANC official had been paid state funds for a shoddy construction job.
The ANC has spent billions of dollars to improve the lives of the poor but the results have been mixed. Much of the money has been lost through corruption and incompetence, angering welfare recipients and taxpayers alike. (C003)
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Editor: Ella Syafputri
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
