Ruling party faces toughest challenge in South Africa vote

About 26 million people had registered to vote at more than 22,000 polling stations as the ANC sought to retain control of key metropolitan areas despite a vigorous challenge from opposition parties.

Voting in Cape Town, retired archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said it remained an "honor for a black person to vote in this country" following the end of white minority rule.

Opposition parties hoped to make big gains against the ruling party in Johannesburg; Tshwane, the greater metropolitan area of the capital, Pretoria; and Nelson Mandela Bay, a municipality on the east coast.

Lawmakers of the Economic Freedom Fighters have disrupted parliamentary sessions several times to protest the scandal over Zuma's private home, which has hurt the ruling party's popularity.

More than a dozen political candidates and party activists were killed in the run-up to the election, mostly in KwaZulu-Natal province, a stronghold of the ruling party.