The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) declared the final results of the local government elections on Sunday evening, confirming the African National Congress’s worst result since 1994.
The ANC won 30.76 percent of the vote. That is down sharply from 45.59 percent in the 2021 local elections, and the first time the ANC has fallen to around 30 percent in a nationwide vote. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula called the result “catastrophic.”
Opposition gains across the metros
The Democratic Alliance won 24.64 percent, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) won 9.77 percent, the Economic Freedom Fighters won 6.22 percent and ActionSA won 5.67 percent.
The DA leads in five of the eight metropolitan municipalities, but holds an outright majority in only one — Cape Town, with 56.42 percent. That leaves the DA, like every other party, needing coalition partners in most of the country’s biggest cities.
MK is the largest party in eThekwini, with 86 of 223 seats. The ANC leads in only two metros — Buffalo City, with 42.02 percent, and Mangaung, with 33.91 percent. Turnout was 52 percent.
Coalition talks now begin
Coalition talks are now under way, and councils must meet within 14 days to elect mayors and speakers. With no party holding a majority in most councils, those negotiations will decide who governs South Africa’s cities for the next five years.
President Cyril Ramaphosa used his Monday newsletter to urge service delivery first — a message aimed at a party that has lost control of the argument that it alone can govern.
The result redraws South African politics. The ANC, which has governed nationally since 1994 and dominated local government for three decades, now faces a future in which it must share power in almost every major city. The ANC was stuck on 31 percent as 122 councils hung in the balance during the count, before the IEC’s final declaration confirmed the scale of the defeat.
