ANC's worst local election showing forces coalition scramble in South Africa

South Africa's political parties are locked in coalition talks that will decide who runs the country's major cities, after the African National Congress turned in the worst local election performance in its history. The ANC is still the largest party, but its national vote share dropped to just over 30%, leaving it short of the numbers it needs to govern Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni alone.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and the party's top leadership started meeting Thursday to settle on a strategy and pick potential partners. The ANC says it will announce the outcome of that meeting on Saturday. Official results show no party won an outright majority in roughly 65% of municipal councils, so the horse-trading stretches well beyond the big metros.

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu insisted the party is still a force "with clear policy positions and a program that can improve the lives of all South Africans," despite the slide. The arithmetic is unforgiving in the cities: in both Johannesburg and Tshwane, the Democratic Alliance pulled in significantly more votes than the ANC.

The ANC this week opened talks with ActionSA, its bitter rival and a breakaway from the DA led by Herman Mashaba, a former Johannesburg mayor. In Tshwane, ActionSA and the DA are expected to negotiate a coalition that shuts the ANC out entirely.

Ekurhuleni joins Johannesburg and Tshwane on the list of councils with no outright winner, and eThekwini is bracing for its own fight. There, the MK Party led by former President Jacob Zuma took the most votes at just over 38%, with the DA on 25% and the ANC on 16%.

Nationally, the ANC is already sharing power with the DA in a unity government after losing its parliamentary majority for the first time in the 2024 elections. The two parties clash on land redistribution, affirmative action and the economy — differences that now hang over every local deal being negotiated.