Johannesburg - As the electoral vote count hit the magical three million mark, ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe rubbished talk of a possible provincial coalition government - saying the party "contested to win".
Mabe was speaking shortly after the Electoral Commission's (IEC) leaderboard, shortly after 9am, showed the ANC edging past the 1.8 million votes received, with the DA at 870 000 and the EFF at 276 000.
The ANC performed poorly in Gauteng at the 2016 Local Government Elections.
The DA received 38.4%, while the EFF, contesting its first local elections, gained a commendable 11% in Gauteng.
Most opinion polls released this week have predicted a coalition government after this year's elections, with predictions that no party would be able to reach the magical 50% mark to form its own Cabinet.
But a bullish Mabe, who also sits on the ANC's national executive committee, which is the party's highest decision-making body, said the organisation's leaders had not even entertained a drop below 50%.
“You must not even draw us into that (coalition talks) space as yet. When you go into an election, you contest to win – that’s why party’s contest elections. We contest elections to win.
“When we registered the ANC to stand for these elections, we registered to stand in all nine provinces. It was our desire that the ANC should emerge as a government in all those provinces," Mabe asserted.
His views were echoed by Ekurhuleni mayor and the ANC's regional chairperson, Mzwandile Masina, who also expressed confidence in the party winning provinces outright.