DA officials rejoice after winning the Western Cape. (Jan Gerber/News24)
While the DA has retained the Western Cape, it failed to press the ANC out of an outright majority in the province's northern neighbour, as it had hoped.
With all the results in the Western Cape captured, the DA had 55.58% of the vote, compared to the 59.38% it received in the 2014 elections.
In second place was the ANC, with 28.5%, down from 2014's 32.89%.
The EFF almost doubled its 2.11% in 2014 to 3.98%.
The ACDP also saw a marked improvement, more than doubling their vote to 2.67% compared to 2014's 1.02%.
Another big winner is the FF Plus, who obtained 1.58% of the vote compared to 2014's 0.55%.
The only new party who made a real impact in the province, is former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille's GOOD, who got 3%. Western Cape electoral officer Courtney Sampson was quick to point out that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) will only release the official results on Saturday.
"In terms of the outcome, we can safely assume what we see [on the board with the results] is what the outcome is," Sampson said.
"No thanks to you," one of the people among the jubilant DA officials coalescing around premier-elect Alan Winde sneered.
After Sampson's press conference, in which he had to ask the DA officials to show some respect, Winde said: "It's a huge, huge task ahead, but I'm really grateful. I want to thank the voters for the trust they have put in us."
He said while the "blue team" has won the provincial election, that now changes.
"Now this blue team, has a bit of planning to do for every single voter, it doesn’t matter who you voted for, if you're in the Western Cape, we're there for you.
He said they have a good understanding of the province, they know "where the hurting is" and the main issues.
"My passion is jobs and the economy," Winde said.
He conceded that he made tough promises to fulfil relating to provincial police and railway service.
"So it is going to be a lot of negotiation. Hopefully not as much fighting as in the election, hopefully, we can find ways."
"I'm not scared of a challenge, I think it is going to be an exciting ride over the next five years to build on what we have achieved under Helen Zille and her leadership. Now, let's add some innovation and some other stuff. We don’t have more money, we've got to be entrepreneurial in how we take this forward, and that is what I bring to the party."
On the drop in support in the province, Winde said many factors contributed to it, but he is happy with the 55%.
Western Cape ANC secretary Faiez Jacobs said: "I think we ran a clean campaign, we’ve done a lot of door to door. Our focus has always been socio-economic issues. Our focus has not been on attacking a personality. "
"It is unfathomable that people still complain about high water tariffs, alcohol in schools, all those things, but yet, people vote another way.
"For us, yes, we have to look at our branding, how do we sell our message better," Jacobs said.
He said they were also encouraged by the growth in areas such as the Bo-Kaap, Rylands and Lansdowne, and some rural areas, and said while the party dropped from 2014's 32.89%, they have grown from 2016's 26%.
"It's not what we hoped for, but at least it’s a start in the right direction. Ours is not to complain and blame, ours is to accept the reality, and we will do more, we will do better."
In the Northern Cape, the ANC retained the province, claiming 57.5% of the vote following the capturing of all voting districts.
This is down from the 64.4% the party received in 2014.
The DA will be the official opposition, claiming over 100 000 votes, or 25.5%, up roughly 1.6% from its 2014 haul.
The EFF grew significantly to claim 9.7% of the vote, a 4.75% increase.
The Freedom Front Plus continued its nationwide improved results, with 2.68%.
COPE was the biggest loser in the province, decreasing to 0.86% of the vote from the 3.6% it received in 2014.
GOOD, the ACDP, COPE and the AIC all tracked below 1%, but above 0.5%
In a statement, Northern Cape ANC secretary Deshi Ngxanga said the party extends "its profound gratitude to the people of Northern Cape who braved the cold weather to exercise their democratic right".
"We commit ourselves as the ANC alliance to improve the quality of life of the people of our province, and to ensure that we grow our economy and create more decent jobs and fight poverty, unemployment and inequality," reads the statement.
"We are cognisant of the magnitude of the work that lies ahead. The ANC, will, during the next two weeks go back to our communities to thank them for the support and pledge our commitment to working with them in ensuring that we better their lives."
"The voters have given us an overwhelming mandate to carry out the commitments wherein we received more than 126 800 votes in comparison to our nearest political opponents and this figure is significant in a less populated province like the Northern Cape."
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