The African National Congress (ANC) led the nation with just over 29% of the national vote, or just over 1.5 million votes. The Democratic Alliance (DA) came second with nearly 900,000 votes, followed by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 325,000 votes.
Former president Jacob Zuma's MK party came a close fourth, receiving 309,000 votes.
SABC's Prabasini Moodley reported from the Election Results Centre in Midrand that 6,868 of the country's 23,293 constituencies have now finished counting votes, meaning more than 3.8 million votes have been counted.
prediction
The CSIR 2024 Compensatory Vote Prediction Model indicates the ANC is likely to win 41.8% of the vote, but warns that this is only a prediction at this stage and results are still trickling in.
With 19.6% VD counted, the CSIR predicts ANC 41.8%, DA 21.1%, MK 14.1% and EFF 9.2%.
Western Cape
Meanwhile in the DA's stronghold of the Western Cape, the party is leading with 52% of the vote, with 47% of the votes declared. The ANC is trailing with nearly 21% and Gayton McKenzie's Patriotic Alliance is close to 10%. So far, 748 of the 1,572 constituencies have been declared.
Voter turnout in the state was 58.45%.
Meanwhile, in the Northern Cape, elections are nearly complete with almost 84% of constituencies declared and 615 constituencies finalised.
Limpopo province, with 357 constituencies, had the slowest vote count at 11.1%. The number of invalid votes has also risen to 1.34% nationwide.