AKIPRESS.COM - South Africans voted in local elections on Wednesday that could see the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its scandal-hit leader lose control of the capital and other key cities for the first time since the end of apartheid, Reuters reports.

Many queuing in the winter cold said they were particularly worried about President Jacob Zuma's performance and the state of Africa's most industrialized economy, where one in four is unemployed the central bank expects zero growth this year.

"Where I live I don't have electricity and we use paraffin stoves to cook. We're struggling. For 22 years the ANC has been in power but nothing has changed," said Philemon Mathebula, an unemployed 35-year-old from Johannesburg.

He told Reuters he had switched his allegiance to the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, a historically white-dominated movement that is hoping for growing support under its new black leader Mmusi Maimane.

Analysts say the ANC is facing the toughest challenge in its history - a narrow win in key cities would still be a significant blow for a movement which embodied South Africa’s liberation struggle. Its next major test comes in national elections in 2019.

Opinion polls see a particularly close race in the capital Pretoria, economic-hub Johannesburg and the symbolic Nelson Mandela Bay municipality named after the anti-apartheid icon. The Democratic Alliance was expected to keep hold of Cape Town, the only major city not run by the ANC.

"The vote will be a referendum on Zuma and the performance of his government on the national economy as well as the local level," said BNP Paribas Securities South Africa political analyst Nic Borain.