ANC faces 50% threshold in South African local vote
Voters in Johannesburg and other municipalities test the ruling party's grip on power amid service failures and a new challenge from the MK Party.
By Alessia Romano ·
South African voters cast ballots on Wednesday in local elections that determine control of 257 municipal bodies. The results will indicate whether the African National Congress can halt its decade-long slide in support after losing its parliamentary majority in 2024.
The ANC seeks to maintain influence in the country's eight main city municipalities and 205 local councils. This contest is particularly sharp in Johannesburg, the economic hub with a population of roughly 5 million. The city has changed mayors five times in four years, a instability that underscores voter frustration with service delivery.
The Democratic Alliance is challenging the ANC-led coalition in Johannesburg. The party nominated Helen Zille, its 75-year-old former national leader, as its mayoral candidate. Zille has drawn attention to infrastructure failures through publicity stunts, including snorkeling in a flooded road trench and rowing a boat through a leak-induced pond.
Voters select council members who then appoint mayors, meaning smaller parties hold considerable leverage in forming coalitions. In the 2021 local elections, the ANC received less than 50% of the vote for the first time since 1994. It subsequently formed a national unity government with the DA and other partners in 2024, though the parties remain rivals at the local level.
The MK Party, led by former President Jacob Zuma, enters the race for the first time. Zuma resigned in 2018 over corruption allegations and was expelled from the ANC in 2024 to launch his own party. The MK Party finished as the third-largest force in Parliament in 2024 and maintains strong support in the KwaZulu-Natal province.
Public service failures, particularly water and electricity supply, drive the campaign agenda. High crime and unemployment rates also weigh on voter sentiment. A national reckoning over immigration has added a new layer to the debate, with some parties making opposition to undocumented migration a central theme of their local campaigns.
