Now that South Africa's 2009 general elections are a thing of the past, we dig up a few choice quotes and reveal which politicians' predictions were spot on and which were further off the mark than Julius Malema at a Maths Olympiad.

While some were slyly circumspect with their pre-election comments, others put their necks on the line.

Eat your heart out, Nostradamus. Let's dive straight in...

"The DA will make history in the Western Cape on Wednesday [22 April] because a sitting ANC government will be voted out of office. The blue tide of the DA will wash away the ANC." Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille

Wash the ANC away indeed. The outgoing mayor of Cape Town was spot on with this brave prediction as the DA became the first party to win the Western Cape with an outright majority, garnering 51.46 percent of votes in the province.

"We are told the ANC will lose this province [Western Cape], but after our assessment we are more than convinced we will take over this province." African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema

The source of said "assessment" is expected to be threatened with militant action now that 'young' Julius is left with enough egg on his face to feed a small omelette-loving nation. Beware!

"They say that we will not even be an official opposition [in KwaZulu-Natal]. We are not worried about them [statistics] because we know that they are not correct." Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi

While the IFP would have been pretty disappointed with their showing in KZN, they comfortably retained the status of official opposition in the province, with around 22 percent of the vote.

"The ANC will win the elections on Wednesday [22 April]. Zuma will come in and be the president... Vumani Bo!" Gauteng premier Paul Mashatile

Well, that was always going to be rather a safe bet…

"Research shows... one million South Africans will unite behind our vision and approach." Independent Democrats leader Patricia De Lille

The ID obviously needs to hire new researchers… the party fell well short of the million-mark on the national stage, securing fewer than 163 000 votes.

"If you vote for another party it will be like throwing your vote into the bush because it won't make any difference." ANC president Jacob Zuma

Not so, soon-to-be-Mr. President. While many of the smaller parties suffered at the hands of the ANC, the DA and Cope managed to prevent a two-thirds majority, which is at least a symbolic victory (and not one that was required to protect the constitution, according to the ANC).

"We are confident that we have convinced South Africans to vote for change." Congress of the People presidential candidate Mvume Dandala

Despite plenty of rousing talk about toppling the ANC in the build-up to the elections, the young party must be pretty pleased to have slotted into third place nationally, convincing some 1.3-million South Africans to "vote for change".

"We will do well this year. I was so happy when I visited Mpumalanga and North West provinces and saw UDM posters." United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa

If you define "well" as 0.85 percent of the national vote, then yes, the UDM did splendidly.

To close, we've put together a table comparing Ipsos-Markinor's predictions to the actual results. Besides erroneously forecasting that the ANC would achieve a two-thirds majority, they were pretty spot on.

I-M Prediction Actual Result
ANC 67% 65.9%
DA 13% 16.66%
Cope 11% 7.42%
IFP 3.5% 4.55%
ID 1.5% 0.85%
UDM 1% 0.85%
ACDP 1% 0.81%
FF+ 1% 0.83%

Off-target or oracle? Which South African politician makes the best or worst soothsayer? Add your comment below...
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