The African National Congress has won 279 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly, and has for the first time also taken the majority of seats in all nine provincial legislatures, the Independent Electoral Commission announced on Saturday.

This included KwaZulu-Natal -- traditionally an Inkatha Freedom Party-held province -- where the ANC is to take up 18 seats compared to the IFP's 13.

IEC chairwoman Brigalia Bam announced that the ANC's closes rival at the national level, the DA, came second in the electoral race with 50 parliamentary seats.

The IFP was third with 28, followed by the United Democratic Movement with nine, and the New National Party and Independent Democrats with seven each.

The African Christian Democratic Party got six seats, the Freedom Front Plus four, and the Pan Africanist Congress and United Christian Democratic Party three each.

The Minority Front and Azanian People's Organisation would get two seats each.

Other parties with seats in KwaZulu-Natal, were the DA with four and the ACDP and MF with one each.

In the Western Cape -- historically an NNP strong-hold -- the ANC took 146 of the 200 provincial seats, followed by the DA with 26, the IFP with 14, the ACDP, UDM, and ID with three each, the NNP with two, and the UCDP, FF Plus and MF with one each.

The ANC took 23 of the 28 seats in the Eastern Cape, followed by the UDM with three and the DA with two.

In the Free State, it got 12 seats compared to the DA's one.

In Gauteng, the ANC led with 32 of the 45 seats while the DA had nine and the FF Plus, ACDP, ID and IFP one each.

In Limpopo, the ANC won 20 of the 21 seats -- with the DA getting the other one.

In Mpumalanga, the ruling party took 13 seats and the DA one, while in the Northern Cape, it won by three to the DA's single seat.

In the North West, the ANC got 15 seats, with the UCDP and DA at one each - Sapa.