Pretoria - Despite the African National Congress losing a significant amount of voters in this year's elections, President Cyril Ramaphosa remains convinced that citizens prefer his party to lead South Africa.
Ramaphosa said the victory demonstrates the confidence the people still have in the ANC.
He was speaking on Saturday at the tombstone unveiling ceremony for his former spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa in Pretoria.
"We just came out of an election where your movement has emerged victorious with a much reduced support base but hey, they have given another chance and we are not going to fail to them," he said, addressing the late Mamoepa.
The party has not previously won less than 60 percent of the vote in a national election. With 100 percent of voting districts counted following Wednesday's election, the ANC led with 57.50 percent of the vote.
The main opposition DA got 20.77 percent of the vote and the EFF, 10.79 percent.
The ANC has barely managed to keep Gauteng from being snatched by opposition parties after the party got just over 50% of the vote.
Ramaphosa said the elections have been largely about local government and service delivery issues and their victory means doing right by the people.
"This time the time to address the needs of our people sparingly," Ramaphosa said.