ANC Suffers Historic Losses in South Africa's Local Elections

South Africans voted on November 4 to renew the administrations of all 257 municipalities, according to Il Post. The elections became a test of how much support the African National Congress could retain amid anger over everyday services.

Residents told BBC News they were tired of poor services. Deutsche Welle also identified corruption and high crime rates as sources of growing voter frustration. The pressure was particularly acute for a party credited with leading the country out of white minority rule, as ABC News described it.

Before counting began on November 4, forecasts already pointed to a serious setback. Al Jazeera reported polls suggesting the ANC could fall below 40 percent, while The Guardian said it was expected to receive less than a third of the vote.

By November 5, the scale of the decline was becoming clearer. The ANC stood at about 32 percent with more than 60 percent of votes counted, according to Al Jazeera. The Financial Times reported that early results suggested a huge drop compared with 2021.

The losses extended into the major cities. On November 6, Il Post reported that ANC support had collapsed across the most important metropolitan areas. That day, Le Monde projected the party would remain the largest nationally, with 31.7 percent against 25.8 percent for its main competitor, the Democratic Alliance.

By November 7, near-final results pointed to the ANC's lowest-ever vote share, Deutsche Welle reported. It linked the punishment at the polls to shoddy municipal services, including water and electricity shortages.

On November 8, Al Jazeera put President Cyril Ramaphosa's party at 31 percent nationally with 99 percent counted. The Hindu described its share at the same counting stage as around 30 percent. Those rounded figures differ slightly, but both show the ANC winning less than a third of the vote.

The ANC has suffered its worst-ever municipal election result, according to Deutsche Welle. It nevertheless remains the largest party nationally, as RTBF and Le Monde reported during the count. Being the largest party is not the same as securing control of individual councils.

The latest figure supplied by Al Jazeera still leaves one percent of votes uncounted. The broad outcome, however, is clear: a historic electoral setback for a party whose association with the end of apartheid no longer shields it from voter anger over local government.

The immediate issue is who can assemble governing coalitions where no party has a majority. DIE ZEIT reported that difficult coalition talks were expected. Those negotiations will determine how the fragmented vote translates into control of municipal administrations.

The remaining count will also establish the final national shares. Beyond that, the political test is whether the resulting councils can address the water and electricity shortages that voters blamed on the ANC, according to Deutsche Welle.