The ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday acknowledged a severe defeat in the South African parliamentary elections held this week after almost all the votes had been counted. “There’s nothing to celebrate in terms of the performance of the ANC,” Secretary General Fikile Mbalula told a press conference in Johannesburg after 99.91% of the votes had been counted. According to the electoral commission, the ANC’s share stands at 40.2%, down around 17 percentage points from its performance in the 2019 elections. The party, which emerged from a liberation movement that fought the white mi…