THE DOMINANCE of the African National Congress in the main urban areas of KwaZulu Natal, including the port city of Durban, has emerged as a central theme in local government elections in the province.
As results of the elections poured in yesterday, the ANC gained control of Durban, Pietermaritzburg, the provincial capital, and further north, Ladysmith. Even Newcastle, once a stronghold of the Inkatha Freedom Party, seemed set to fall.
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's party was all but wiped out in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, where it trailed the smaller minority parties, the National Party, the Democratic Party and even the Minority Front led by the controversial Mr Amichand Rajbansi.
ANC gains in Newcastle, an industrial town in the northern half of the province, were particularly ominous for the IFP: Newcastle is the home of IFP national chairman and KwaZulu Natal Premier Mr Frank Mdlalose.
Mr Peter Miller, a member of the IFP dominated provincial government, admitted results in the urban areas were disappointing - and pointed to the need for a major rethink by the party.
The IFP secretary general, Dr Ziba Jiyane, however, adopted a more positive attitude. Noting that IFP strength was concentrated in rural areas, particularly around the heartland of the Zulu kingdom at Ulundi, he said: "The best is yet to come.
The initial results came from the province's cities and towns, where, with a few exceptions, the tide of political change has moved - seemingly inexorably - from the IFP to the ANC in the past decade, particularly since the release from prison of President Nelson Mandela in 1990.
But the first rural results emphasised the need to be mindful of Dr Jiyane's comment. In rural territory north of the Tugela River, the IFP scored decisive victories, winning 96 per cent of the vote in the remote Inkandla region.
IFP dominance in the rural areas aside, another factor could save the IFP from overall defeat in the province: a fifth of the seats in the regional councils are reserved for chiefs, the vast majority of whom are staunchly proIFP.
As election officials and party campaigners waited for the final results to trickle in from the outback, the question of who would emerge as the final victor revolved around a single issue: would the IFP be able to whittle away the huge lead built up by the ANC and repeat its unexpected triumph in the 1994 provincial election?
Aside from the substantial gains made by the ANC at the IFP's expense in the urban areas, the election was characterised by the strong showing of independent and politically non aligned ratepayer associations in many of the smaller towns, pointing to widespread disillusionment with politicking by the main parties and a desire to avoid the often homicidal acrimony it generates.