The African National Congress has suffered its worst electoral result since it swept to power under Nelson Mandela in 1994, with near-final counting from South Africa's local government elections putting the party at roughly 32 percent of the national vote — down from 46 percent when these same municipalities were last contested in 2021.
With more than 95 percent of ballots tallied by the Independent Electoral Commission, the ANC's slide leaves it unable to govern most major metros outright, extending a run of declining results that began with its first-ever loss of an outright national majority in the 2024 general election. The opposition Democratic Alliance gained ground in several cities, while the hard-left Economic Freedom Fighters rose to nearly 10 percent of the vote, up from about 7 percent previously.
A slow-motion collapse
Analysts described the result as the culmination of years of eroding public patience rather than a single event. Voters in Johannesburg, Tshwane and other major centers have endured prolonged water shortages, rolling power cuts and crumbling roads, even as corruption investigations have continued to touch senior party figures. "This is the most severe result that the ANC would have feared," political analyst Daniel Silke told AFP. "It's the ANC's worst result in history."
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen framed the outcome in blunter terms, calling the headline figure "the collapse of the ANC below 50 percent" — a threshold the party had cleared in every local election since the end of apartheid until now.
What changes on the ground
Falling below a majority in most contested councils means the ANC will again have to negotiate coalition arrangements to retain control of city governments, a model that has produced unstable, short-lived administrations in Johannesburg and other metros since 2016. Opposition parties, including the DA and EFF, are expected to begin coalition talks this week once the Electoral Commission certifies the final national tally.
The result lands less than two years after the ANC's loss of its outright parliamentary majority in the 2024 national election forced it into a national unity government for the first time in the party's history — a sign, analysts say, that voter frustration has deepened rather than eased since then.
The party's leadership has offered little public response beyond acknowledging the results reflect "legitimate frustration" with service delivery. Attention now turns to whether the ANC's national leadership, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, faces renewed internal pressure ahead of the party's next elective conference, and whether coalition-built city governments can avoid the paralysis that has plagued them in the past.
