At a media briefing at the Electoral Commission’s National Results Centre on Saturday, African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said the local government election result, which put the party at 34%, had been “a very catastrophic outcome for the ANC”, adding that the ANC “remains humbly the largest party in the country”.

Mbalula said: “We recognise that many South Africans who once placed their confidence in the ANC have chosen to support other parties. Others have withdrawn from electoral participation altogether.”

“We recognise their concerns. We will not question their judgement or explain away their decisions .

“We cannot ask the people to trust us merely because of our history,” Mbalula said. The party’s history gave it “a responsibility to serve ... It does not give us an entitlement to govern”.

“In the words of the scripture that so many of our people live by, we have been weighed in the balance,” he said.

He added that the party had known the “disaster” was coming: “We’re staring at it.” Mbalula commented that the ANC would “not be in a hurry to get into coalitions”, and that its options included “becoming an opposition, a principled opposition”, and “confidence and supply”.

“We are talking to political parties as and when we are requested to engage in what we call talks about talks,” Mbalula said. “We are not in the business of cutting deals. We are in the business of serving our people.”

Mbalula said the ANC’s National Executive Committee would meet on Thursday, and that the party would brief the media the following day to give “the final position of the ANC”.