Reported by The Guardian
Party expected to get less than a third of the vote amid frustration over water outages and power cuts
The African National Congress is on course for a bruising result in South Africa’s local elections on Wednesday as voters go to the polls amid deep discontent over water outages, power cuts and crumbling infrastructure.
The former liberation movement, which Nelson Mandela led to power in 1994 at the end of apartheid as South Africa’s first black president, is still likely to be the largest party. However, polls show it getting less than a third of the vote, down from 45.6% at the last municipal elections in 2021 and 40.2% in 2024’s national elections .
More from the original report
Vote fragmentation means the ANC could still end up leading many city coalition governments while losing control of others.
Unstable coalitions are already a feature of many of South Africa’s 257 municipalities, and analysts point to their high turnover as a major reason for poor service delivery .
Johannesburg, a city of 4.8 million people that has faced water shortages for more than a week , has had 10 mayors in as many years. The neighbouring municipality of Ekurhuleni has had three mayors since 2021. To the north, in Tshwane, which contains the capital, Pretoria, the mayoralty has rotated between parties four times since 2020. In October, more than 800 people contracted a gastrointestinal illness from contaminated water in Bronkhorstspruit, in east Tshwane.
Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane are in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous and densely populated province and its economic engine. The centre-right, white-led Democratic Alliance is leading the polls in all three metros but has not been polling above 40%.
The ANC’s national leadership is open to working with the DA in Gauteng, according to South African media , mirroring the government of national unity, where the two parties are the largest in the national coalition. However, local ANC leaders are reportedly not in favour of a DA tie-up. Currently, the ANC governs with a combination of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters and the populist Patriotic Alliance and ActionSA across the province’s three metros.