South Africans could have the results of the fourth Local Government elections by Saturday, Chief Electoral Officer Pansy Tlakula said on Thursday afternoon.

"We hope to complete the capturing and validation process tomorrow and will declare the results on Saturday, 21 May," Tlakula told media at the Independent Electoral Commission's (IEC) Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Pretoria.

The Commission has seven days to declare the results of Wednesday's elections of which the IEC hopes to beat this deadline.

Tlakula said several metropolitan councils' results were outstanding. Buffalo City has released 84.6% of its results, Nelson Mandela Bay released 98.8%, Ekurhuleni 85.1%, the City of Johannesburg 19.8%, Mangaung 50.4%, Tshwane 55.5%, eThekwini 22% and the City of Cape Town 34.2%.

"They started work at 4am [Wednesday]. They would have counted, captured and validated by midday [Thursday]. They have done extremely well," said Tlakula.

The Northern Cape, she said, had completed its voting process. "The Northern Cape is 100% complete; it takes 24 hours of working."

By 2pm on Thursday, IEC officials had captured 51 642 of the 58 158 results slips which constitutes 88, 8% of the result slips expected.

"Seventy-one point one percent of the results have already been completed and released," said the IEC.