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As coalition talks get underway, those involved will have to be "mature behind closed doors", a political analyst has said.

The ANC, while losing its majority, still took more than 40% of the vote.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), received almost 22% of the vote.

Coalition negotiations are unlikely to be easy because the "DA has approached the ANC as the enemy over many, many years", analyst Oscar van Heerden said.

"Everyone is looking to see if South Africa can weather the storm and come out the other side," he told the eNCA news network.

An ANC-DA coalition would "possibly give stability", Mr van Heerden said, although some within the ANC are likely to oppose it.

"The next few days is going to be a very difficult period. People will have to be mature behind closed doors."

 The people of South Africa "have spoken", President Cyril Ramaphosa has said, "whether we like it or not".

He added: "We have heard the voices of our people and we must respect their choices and their wishes.

"The people of South Africa expect their leaders to work together to meet their needs. 

"This is a time for all of us to put South Africa first."

Coalition talks are getting underway after the ANC, Mr Ramaphosa's party, lost its majority for the first time in 30 years.

It took just over 40% of the vote.

The main opposition party, the white-led, pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA), received 21.8% of the vote.

The ANC losing its 30-year majority takes South Africa into "uncharted territory", Sky News's Africa correspondent has said.

Yousra Elbagir commented: "The ANC is still the heavyweight of the political race. They have the largest share of the vote -  40.18%."

But the party will now have to compromise and negotiate, she added.

It took 57.5% of the vote in 2019. 

The ANC's governance over the last 10 years has "triggered a lot of discontent", Elbagir said.

"There are people who are really fed up with economic inequality - the highest level of economic inequality in the world here in South Africa."

There is also considerable unemployment in the country, Elbagir noted.

She went on: "We [saw] young people in this election, some first time voters who voted for change, and they certainly got it." 

The African National Congress (ANC) has won considerably fewer than half the seats in South Africa's National Assembly.

It has taken 159 of 400, the country's electoral commission said.

In the previous parliament, it had 230 seats.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the result was a victory for democracy - despite his party losing its majority.

The ANC has had a majority since 1994.

Coalition talks will now get underway - but time is limited. 

Parliament needs to sit for the first time - and elect a president - within 14 days of the election results being declared.

"Did we commit mistakes? Yes, we did - in governance and everywhere else," Fikile Mbalula, the party's secretary general, said on Sunday.

"The ANC is committed to the formation of a government that reflects the will of the people, that is stable and that is able to govern effectively," he added.

This general election in South Africa has been "very historic" and has brought a "very historic result", a veteran MP has said.

Corne Mulder, who has been the Freedom Front Plus party's chief whip, and an MP since 1994, told Sky News it means that for the first time in decades, "the ANC will now lose its absolutely full grasp on political power in South Africa".

He added: "We are now moving into coalition territory within the provinces, but also at a national level."

Asked if the people definitely want change, he added: "I think people were desperate for change. 

"They've clearly indicated that by reducing the ANC to 40% that they want change.

"They want to embrace a coalition government that can bring change."

The Democratic Alliance (DA) - the party that came second in the election - has appointed a negotiating team as it begins talks on forming a coalition.

Its leader, John Steenhuisen, said on YouTube: "The DA will not bury our heads in the sand, we will face up to this challenge."

His party wants to prevent what he called a "doomsday coalition", he said.

That involves formal links between the African National Congress (ANC) and the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters - or former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto we Sizwe, Mr Steenhuisen added. 

The ANC has said it is open to all discussions.

"There is no party we are not going to talk to," said its secretary general, Fikile Mbalula.

For much of the second half of the 20th century, racial segregation was enforced in South Africa.

The Population Registration Act of 1950 classified all South Africans as either black, mixed race, or white.

A fourth category - Asian (Indian and Pakistani) - was later added, according to Britannica.

In the Afrikaans language, apartheid means "apartness".

While racial segregation had existed in South Africa for centuries, the National Party made new apartheid laws in the years after taking power in 1948.

Those laws enforced segregation more strictly, and basic rights were denied to non-white people.

Black people had to carry special passes or gain permission to travel outside their designated area, and to work in areas reserved for whites.

The government separated mixed communities and forcibly moved many black people off their land, Wikipedia says.

There were protests - such as in Sharpeville in 1960 and Soweto in 1976.

Apartheid came to an end after FW de Klerk became president in 1989.

In a speech the following year, he said he was lifting a ban on the African National Congress (ANC).

He also ruled that Nelson Mandela would be released from prison, after being held for 27 years. 

When the ANC won a landslide victory in the 1994 general election, white minority rule came to an end.

Mr Mandela served as president of South Africa from 1994-1999.

As the South African president's future could be uncertain, we're taking a look at what we know about Cyril Ramaphosa. 

The 71-year-old was elected in 2018, some 25 years after he first revealed his ambitions to become president. 

He joined the African National Congress (ANC) party after experiencing the injustices of the racist apartheid system from a young age.

At university he became involved in the black consciousness movement and spent months in solitary confinement as a result. 

In the 1980s he led the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in one of the largest strikes in South Africa's history, pushing back against white mine bosses. 

Later he helped Nelson Mandela to negotiate an end to apartheid. 

Mr Ramaphosa had hoped to become Mr Mandela's deputy president after this, but he was overlooked in favour of Thabo Mbeki. 

Instead he took up a role as an MP and played a leading part in drafting South Africa's post-apartheid constitution. 

For a time he withdrew from politics to become a business executive, and he had lucrative ventures in sectors including telecoms, the media, beverages, fast food and mining. 

By 2015, he had become one of South Africa's wealthiest politicians. 

However he faced a major blow to his reputation when police killed 34 workers at the Marikana platinum mine (which was owned by a company Mr Ramaphosa was a director of). 

Emails emerged showing he had called for action against the miners for engaging in "dastardly criminal acts", which appeared to be a reference to their violent strike. 

He was later cleared of involvement in the killings by an inquiry. 

Two years later, he became deputy president to Jacob Zuma. 

As Mr Zuma's two-term limit approached, Mr Ramaphosa battled it out for the top job with the president's ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. 

He beat her to become ANC leader in December 2017, and eventually took on the role as president when Mr Zuma was pressured to step down the following year. 

Mr Ramaphosa inherited a difficult situation from his predecessor, and has faced scandals during his time as president - but survived to be re-elected to the helm in 2022. 

Since then he has struggled to lift economic growth and make a dent in high unemployment as a third of South Africans remain jobless. 

It was a joyful day 30 years ago in a South Africa that had enjoyed very few.

It was the first truly democratic election, and the black majority - for so long the victims of the wretched oppression imposed by apartheid - finally had their say.

And how they spoke!

I watched them queue in Soweto in the sunshine, dancing and singing as they waited. And it was a long wait.

The system couldn't cope. South Africa wasn't used to everyone being able to vote. But wait they did, long into the night to cast their first ever vote... for a black party... led by a black man鈥� the black man who had fought for and led and carried the African National Congress (ANC) to this moment.

One grandmother told me that she could "die happy now" because "I know my children and my children's children will no longer be without a vote in their own country".

But today, I have to say, Nelson Mandela would be turning in his grave. His ANC has been humiliated at the polls.

You can read the full story from our chief presenter Mark Austin below...

South Africa is now on course for its first-ever coalition government. 

That's thanks to dwindling support for the once-dominant African National Congress (ANC). 

So what went wrong for the ruling party? Our Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir explains...