JOHANNESBURG
South Africa's African National Congress posted its worst election performance in history, securing just over 30 percent of the vote in municipal polls held Wednesday, according to near-final tallies released Saturday.
The South African Electoral Commission confirmed the result with 98 percent of votes counted: the ANC lost its majority in six of the country's eight metropolitan regions, triggering complex coalition negotiations to form municipal governing alliances.
Voters expressed anger over failures in basic services, including water and electricity shortages blamed on ANC-led municipalities. High unemployment, rising crime rates and widespread corruption fueled the discontent.
ANC leader and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had not addressed the poor performance as of Saturday evening. But earlier in the week, he acknowledged in his weekly presidential letter that "municipal failures have contributed to declining public trust and confidence in democratic governance."
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula told reporters Saturday the party must work to regain public trust. "We cannot ask the people to trust us merely because of our history," Mbalula said. "It has been catastrophic for the movement."
Despite the historically low vote share, the ANC remains the single largest party by overall vote percentage. The party, once led by Nelson Mandela, took power in 1994 after South Africa became a democracy and played a central role in ending apartheid.
For most of its history, the ANC governed with an absolute majority until the 2024 general election, when it lost its outright parliamentary majority for the first time. It then formed a cross-party national unity government with all parties represented in parliament, which remains in power.
The party's steady decline over the past decade accelerated this year. In the 2024 national polls, the ANC garnered just over 40 percent of the vote, down from 46 percent in the 2021 municipal elections.
Political analyst Daniel Silke told AFP the result represented "the most severe result that the ANC would have feared," adding that the outcome will undermine the ANC's authority at both local and national levels and may serve as a bellwether for voter sentiment ahead of the 2029 general elections.
The ANC's decline reflects widespread disillusionment over corruption, mismanagement and persistently high unemployment. The political landscape has also seen the emergence of smaller parties that have fragmented the ANC's traditional voter base.
The pro-business, center-right Democratic Alliance emerged as the runner-up, securing 24 percent of the votes, and is poised to maintain control of Cape Town after winning an absolute majority in the city.
