ANC slumps to 32 percent as South Africa counts municipal votes

South Africa's ruling African National Congress is bleeding support. With more than 60 percent of ballots counted late Thursday, the party sat at about 32 percent of the municipal vote, data from the electoral commission showed. The Democratic Alliance trailed in second at 25 percent, while Jacob Zuma's breakaway uMkhonto weSizwe party landed third at 8.5 percent — well below what opinion polls had promised.

Voters turned out in bigger numbers than last time. About 15.9 million of the country's 29.2 million registered voters cast ballots, an estimated turnout of 54.5 percent. That's a jump from the 46 percent recorded in the pandemic-hit 2021 local elections. Final results are expected Sunday.

The ANC has been South Africa's biggest party since it led the country out of apartheid in 1994, but municipal ballots have long been its weak spot. It took nearly 70 percent of the national vote in 2004, then slipped below half the vote for the first time in 2021, finishing at 46 percent. In the 2024 national elections it managed just over 40 percent and had to hand power into a unity government with nine other parties, the DA among them.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's party is paying for years of municipal mismanagement, according to critics. Failing water supplies, persistent power cuts and crumbling public services have worn down patience, and corruption allegations have done the rest. Splinter parties have been steadily chewing into its support base.

The fight for the cities is where it gets messy. The MK party had been tipped to possibly snatch an outright majority in the eastern port city of Durban, but projections from the state-funded Council for Scientific and Industrial Research put it at 32 percent there. The DA was forecast to hold tourist magnet Cape Town at 56 percent, with its leader Geordin Hill-Lewis already claiming victory, and CSIR projections showed it leading in Johannesburg, the financial capital, at 34 percent after a campaign spearheaded by former leader Helen Zille, 75.

Control of the country's eight major metropolitan municipalities is on the line, plus dozens of district and local councils. With outright majorities far from safe in several big cities, South Africa could be heading into another round of bruising coalition talks as parties haggle over the alliances needed to govern. The results also offer the clearest read yet on voter mood before the 2029 general election.