By Thursday afternoon, the leader board at the Results Operation Centre (ROC) showed that over 7.5 million of the valid votes cast had been counted.
At 16:41, the capturing progress sat at 51.22%.
Having reached the 50% threshold of votes counted, IEC officials, observer missions, political representatives, media and analysts stationed at the ROC kept their eyes glued to the leader board.
The picture on the statistics for the country’s big metros also came into sharp focus.
By 16:11, a total 233 013 votes cast in the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, which is home to the capital city, had been counted, of which 1 754 were spoilt.
In the City of Johannesburg, with a total registered population of 2 291 299 people, a total of 395 556 votes had been counted by 16:11, with a total 3489 spoilt votes.
In the sister Metro of Ekurhuleni, which boasts a total registered population of 1 631 056, a total 443 528 votes were counted by 16:16, while 4 632 votes were spoilt.
The Free State’s Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality had a total registered population of 425 263. A total of 61 828 votes had been counted at 16:16, while 514 votes were spoilt.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in the Eastern Cape saw a total 226 352 votes having been counted, with 2 724 votes spoilt.
Meanwhile, Buffalo City - which had a total registered population of 421 247 - saw a total 34 893 votes being counted, while 430 were spoilt.
The City of Cape Town in the Western Cape had a total of 708 997 votes counted across all its voting districts, with a total 6 298 spoilt votes.
In the eThekwini Metro in KwaZulu-Natal, a total of 76 282 votes were counted at 16:33, with 1 062 spoilt votes. – SAnews.gov.za
