ANC party that freed South Africa from apartheid loses 30-year majority
Observers look on as election results are displayed in Midrand, Johannesburg (Themba Hadebe/AP)
The African National Congress party has lost its parliamentary majority in an historic election result that puts South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago.
With nearly 99pc of votes counted, the once-dominant ANC had received just over 40pc in the election on Wednesday, well short of the majority it had held since the famed all-race vote of 1994 that ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela.
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