South Africa's ANC heads for worst-ever result in municipal vote
Early counting puts the ANC on 32 percent, far below its previous low, with coalition talks set to decide control of Johannesburg and other big cities.
Johannesburg — South Africa's African National Congress is heading for its worst election result since it led the country out of apartheid in 1994, early counting in municipal elections showed on Friday. With 71 percent of votes counted, the ANC stood at 32 percent, against 25 percent for its nearest rival, the Democratic Alliance, France 24 reported. Final results were expected later in the day.
If those figures hold, the ANC would be down about 14 percentage points on its last municipal result in 2021, which was already its weakest on record. The trend extends the decline of a party that governed alone for three decades but lost its national majority in 2024 and had to form a coalition to stay in power.
"(The turnout) suggests that ANC voters did not stay away – as many expected – but rather showed up and voted for alternative parties," said Louw Nel, senior political analyst at Oxford Economics Africa, calling an outcome of 32 percent "the party's worst nightmare coming true".
The DA is on course to win an outright majority in Cape Town. But projections point to hung councils in other large metropolitan areas, including Johannesburg, the country's biggest city, and Tshwane, home to the administrative capital Pretoria. That would leave coalition talks to decide who runs them.
In eThekwini, the municipality centred on Durban, the outcome remained unclear in the early stages of the count. Former President Jacob Zuma is hoping his party, a splinter from the ANC, can seize a majority there.
Voters have punished the ANC over high crime and unemployment, corruption scandals and failing basic services such as water and electricity. Analysts say the most stable outcome in cities like Johannesburg would be an ANC partnership with the DA, mirroring their national arrangement, though the two are ideologically opposed on key issues such as racial redress.
For now, residents of the big metros are waiting on the final count — and then on the bargaining that will determine who fixes their taps, lights and streets.
Sources
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