this from a friend of my mother's. background: the ANC increased its share of the vote. the `nats' mention in this are the national party and the DA is the democratic alliance, the descendent of the liberal party of similar name under apartheid.
Here: the election, of course. The results are almost all in: Kwazulu Natal still to be finalised, with the ANC and Inkatha pretty much balanced (thus: the ANC has increased and Inkatha decreased their votes in the province). The ANC nationwide has 69% or so. The DA has increased its vote, seemingly by continuing to move rightwards/conservatively, picking up ex-Nat votes, and retaining/extending their W/N Cape coloured votes. And the Nats almost dead: it's one of these moments where you ALMOST feel sorry for politicians: in this case, the always quite-absurd-seeming Martinus van Schalkwyk. They may just hang on to their coalition position in the W Cape with the ANC, but very much as junior/fairly despised partners.
But it's all gone very efficiently: interesting that the national election system is headed by two women, one - Brigalia Bam - getting on for elderly. They seem to do a very good job.
Mbeki in this campaign suddenly discovered a common touch and image which he either didn't know he had or had never made public before (which presumably defeats the point of having a common touch). It will be interesting to see if he sustains this image, and how this may colour his/the ANC's policies and performance.