LIVE: RESULTS UPDATE: With just over 60% of votes captured, the ANC now has 56.83% of the vote

EXPLAINER: How your votes translate into seats

Now that you've cast your "X" on the ballot paper, this is how the IEC will determine how many people will represent you in Parliament and provincial legislatures. South Africa has a proportional system for national and provincial elections, which means we vote for parties and not candidates contesting a ward.

Is it time to overhaul the voting system?

Instead of having blind faith in the IEC and how it has been doing its work for the past 25 years, this election is showing us that we need to place it and the process of how we cast our ballots under increased scrutiny, writes Mandy Wiener.

Snapshot of Western Cape at 19:25

With 85,94% of the provincial votes counted:

DA 55,17%

ANC 28,79%

EFF 3,8%

GOOD 3,07%

ACDP 2,60%

FF Plus 1,74% - Jan Gerber

Snapshot of NATIONAL votes as at 7:44pm

Total votes cast: 9,488,823

Results captured: 60.93%

Voter turnout: 65.41%

ANC – 56.83%

DA – 22.53%EFF – 9.76%

FF Plus – 2.63%IFP – 2.62%

ACDP – 0.62%

GOOD – 0.56%

UDM – 0.56%

ATM – 0.48%

Patricia de Lille tells News24 that her party's main priorities for the coming Parliamentary term are fighting corruption, addressing problems with spatial planning, and advancing the interests of women.

Patricia de Lille tells News24 that the questions around the irregularities with voting will be a test of the IEC, which has had an unblemished reputation thus far.

"I trust that the IEC will investigate and come back to us. They have been very open and transparent so far," she said.  

Thuma Mina: Gauteng too close to call while the DA loses its grip

The titanic battle for control of Gauteng, the country's richest province, is too close to call, with the ANC hanging on to its majority by a whisker and the DA's poor showing nationally continuing at local level.

THREAD:

A recap of this evening's events, when smaller parties called for an election rerun, from our reporter Azarrah Karrim: 

News24 political analyst Ralph Mathekga says the IEC must act speedily to clarify issues around alleged irregularities. This follows a call by smaller political parties for the election to be re-run because of alleged problems related to the elections. This includes allegations of double voting, which the IEC is investigating. 

Mathekga told News24: "The IEC must step up to clarify these issues. They need to establish the facts expeditiously so that you don't allow rumours to gather and gain momentum. I don't think we can say that the elections were rigged, but we also shouldn't dismiss the smaller parties just because they are small. But the IEC must expeditiously establish the facts about some of these things. We've had marginal problems during elections before but this year, with the proliferation of fake news and the impact of social media, is is critical that the IEC acts against misinformation." 

Mzwanele Manyi says the smaller parties want a rerun of the elections. They say the process has bene so fraught with irregularities that it is no longer credible.

"Even if we got 0 votes, we’d accept the outcome if the process was credible. Right now we are giving legitimacy to a very fraught process. My finger is clean, yet I voted. I reported it but nothing gets done about it. We want an investigation and a re-run that will be done under clean governance," Manyi told News24.

Western Cape at 80, 87 % of votes counted at 17:26.

DA: 54,83;

ANC: 29,06%

EFF: 3,72%

GOOD: 3,1%

Snapshot of Gauteng at 17:22

1150 out of 2771 (41.5%) voting districts have been counted . 

ANC continues to lead with 51.80%

DA has 26.04%

EFF has 14.54% and;

VF plus has 3.54% 

Snapshot of NATIONAL at 17:17

Total votes cast: 8,107,397

ANC – 56.92%

DA – 22.66%

EFF – 9.62%

FF Plus – 2.68%

IFP – 2.46%

ACDP – 0.97%

GOOD – 0.59%

UDM – 0.57% 

Thuma Mina: Gauteng too close to call while the DA loses its grip

The titanic battle for control of Gauteng, the country’s richest province, is too close to call, with the ANC hanging on to its majority by a whisker and the DA’s poor showing nationally continuing at local level.

By late afternoon on Thursday News24’s projection for the province, based on the latest reliable and representative voting numbers, showed:

- ANC: 50,3%

- DA: 27,8%

- EFF: 14%

- Freedom Front Plus: 3,8%

- IFP: 0,8%.