South Africa votes as ANC stares down its worst local election yet

South Africans headed to the polls on Wednesday in local elections that could hand the African National Congress its weakest showing yet. More than 500 parties are fighting for control of nearly 300 municipalities, the bodies responsible for water, electricity and rubbish collection. For the ANC, the vote is a chance to prove it can still govern — and the numbers look ugly.

An Ipsos poll put ANC support at 30%, down from the 46% it won at the last local elections in 2021. The party once pulled 70% nationally in 2004; two decades later that share had fallen to 40%, costing it its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994. President Cyril Ramaphosa is having none of it, telling supporters at the party's final rally that the ANC is going higher and higher and that naysayers would be proved wrong on 4 November.

In Alexandra, the Johannesburg township where the ANC has long counted on loyalty, the mood is frayed. Rubbish piles up under poster-covered streetlights and drain water trickles through potholes, yet the township sits a stone's throw from Sandton, Africa's richest square mile. First-time voter Sanele Ntombela, 18, is still keen; most of his friends never even registered. Zandile Mncube, 33, is registered and still staying home, saying things have only gotten worse.

The problems run far beyond one township. Soweto resident Mduduzi Makhubo, 45, says the water routinely cuts out after 2pm on Mondays. Auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke handed out just 39 clean audits across 2024 and 2025, with none of Gauteng's three metros — Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni — making the list. She warned lawmakers that Johannesburg needs ongoing attention, and the city has been labelled effectively bankrupt.

Political analyst Melanie Verwoerd, a former ANC MP, said the elections amount to a verdict on the party. The expectation, she said, is that the ANC will perform worse than it ever has. The same polling points to a modest lift for the Democratic Alliance, which Ipsos sees at 25%, up from 22% last time, with gains concentrated in Johannesburg. DA leader Helen Zille has campaigned in eye-catching fashion — swimming in crater-sized potholes, ziplining over sinkholes and rolling into her final rally in a classic BMW 325i.

All eyes now land on Africa's wealthiest city and the country's seven other big metros, particularly in Gauteng, where all three are run by coalitions with the ANC as the largest partner. Verwoerd expects coalitions to remain the order of the day there, and argues the steadiest ones would mirror the national power-sharing deal between the ANC and DA. Cape Town, run by the DA since the late 2000s, is unlikely to change hands.