With 76% of votes counted, Mandela’s ANC trails DA in key cities

South Africa’s once-dominant African National Congress was headed for its worst-ever election performance on Friday, with about a third of support after 76 per cent of the votes from local government polls had been counted.

The election results mark a stunning decline for a party that has governed since the end of apartheid in 1994, ValidViewNetwork reports.

THE NUMBERS

With 76 per cent of votes counted nationally, the ANC had garnered nearly 31 per cent and was lagging behind rival parties in key cities like Johannesburg, Tshwane and eThekwini.

During the last local government elections in 2021, the ANC received just over 45 per cent of votes nationally. Its worst electoral performance was in the 2024 national elections, when it lost its parliamentary majority for the first time .

The Democratic Alliance was leading the ANC in Johannesburg, while the MK Party, formed by former ANC leader Jacob Zuma, was leading in the eThekwini municipality, which includes the city of Durban.

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THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu acknowledged the results showed the party was losing significant voter support .

“We are conscious of the message that our voters, especially our historical voters, are conveying to us. And we are going to have a serious, honest and deep reflection about how to rebuild the confidence between ourselves and the people of South Africa,” Bhengu said .

THE COALITION QUESTION

With no party winning outright majorities in key cities, coalition governments are inevitable .

DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said the party would consider potential coalition governments with other parties on a case-by-case basis.

“It is premature for me to commit to any one of the parties for coalitions but they are very seriously under discussion and consideration,” Hill-Lewis said.

WHY IT MATTERS

The ANC’s decline is not a sudden collapse. It is a slow, grinding erosion of trust.

For three decades, the party of Nelson Mandela and the liberation struggle commanded the loyalty of South Africans.

But corruption, unemployment, failing public services and a stagnant economy have taken their toll. Voters are no longer voting out of habit. They are voting out of frustration.

Political analyst Sandile Mnguni captured the shift: “They are watching what their elected leaders are doing when in office. The parties must learn from what is happening to the ANC. If they don’t perform, they will suffer the same fate”.

For the ANC, the results are a reckoning. For South Africa, they are a sign that democracy is maturing. And for the parties that seek to replace the ANC, they are a warning: loyalty is earned, not inherited. ValidViewNetwork reports.