Chairperson, the ANC is extremely pleased with the fact that the local government elections ended on a high note, with the ANC remaining the leading political party in South Africa. The ANC managed to get a convincing mandate of 63,65% of all the votes cast. The ANC performed well, despite pronounced pessimism from all media and commentators. With these results, the ANC has the outright control of 198 councils, which translates into 71% of all councils in South Africa. [Applause.] We are also proud that we have 5 633 councillors in all the councils, which translates into the ANC's having a presence in each and every council in the country.
We want to reassure our communities that their trust in the ANC is not being taken for granted. Whilst we have achieved a lot in past years in terms of service delivery at local government level, this time around we intend to work harder and smarter to improve the material conditions of our people for the better. We would like to take this opportunity to salute our volunteers for their consistent and selfless effort to rally our people and manage our campaign on the ground; without them we would not have registered a resounding success.
Together we can build better communities. I thank you.