The ANC fell to about 31.0% in last week's local elections, its lowest result in any election since 1994, and some in the party blame the GNU.

Bheki Mahlobo, economics editor of The Common Sense, tells Gabriel Makin that the data points to the economy as the reason the ANC did so badly, not the GNU. He compares thirty years of business confidence, investment, growth, and jobs with ANC support, showing how they have risen and fallen together. Fixed investment rose from about 15.0% of the economy in 1994 to 22.0% in 2008 and is now 13.9%. Annual economic growth exceeded 5.0% between 2004 and 2007 but has averaged just 1.1% over the past 17 years. The number of people employed rose by nearly 7 million between 1994 and 2008, but by only about 2 million since. Over the same period, ANC support in local elections rose from 58.0% to a peak of 66.0% before falling to 31.0%.

Bheki also shows Gabriel where the ANC's lost votes went.