Johannesburg (AFP) – The African National Congress (ANC), at the head of South Africa since 1994, recorded its worst electoral result having collected around 30% of the votes in the municipal elections, after the counting of 80% of the votes on Friday.

Published on: 06/11/2026 - 1:22 p.m.

Nelson Mandela's historic party, which remains the country's leading party, has continued to record declines in the electorate since 2004. It fell for the first time below an absolute majority in the national elections in 2024 (40%), forcing it to form a government coalition.

Halfway through the next national elections, the ANC has obtained 31.78% of the votes counted, according to the electoral commission on Friday. A projection based on initial results from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a public organization, credits it with a similar final score, 31.5%.

Its result is also particularly scrutinized in view of the party congress which will appoint as its leader in a year the successor to Cyril Ramaphosa, the current head of state, who cannot run again. No clear favorite has emerged yet.

Public services and dissident parties

“One of the main reasons why the ANC is losing votes is the emergence of parties such as the MKP,” said political analyst Sanet Solomon to AFP, referring to the dissident party Umkhonto we Sizwe (MKP) created at the end of 2023 by ex-president Jacob Zuma.

With a score of 9% in partial results such as the CSIR projection, it remains the third political force in the country but in decline compared to the national elections of 2024 (14.5%).

This professor of political science and governance at the University of the Free State also highlights that the "provision of basic public services, such as water and the condition of the roads, is one of the main problems that have emerged".

A historic rival of the ANC that has become its ally within a government of national unity, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has at this stage collected 24.22% of the votes following a campaign focused on this theme. This is more than in the 2021 local elections (21.66%) but less than in 2016 (26.9%).

In his Cape Town stronghold, mayor and DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis claimed victory at midday on Thursday. After 65% of votes were counted, he accounted for 60.59% of the votes, the CSIR credited him with a score of 56%.

It is the only one of the country's eight largest cities, the "metropolises", where an absolute majority of one party is emerging.

Negotiations for coalitions

The DA seems to be breaking through by temporarily placing itself in the lead in six of these "metro", including the political capital Pretoria and the economic capital Johannesburg. However, it will have to go through coalitions to manage them, as is already the case for a third of municipalities at present.

“We have already made contact with many parties over the last 24 hours, and we will continue. For the moment, these exchanges are informal,” Geordin Hill-Lewis said on Friday.

The MKP, which was expected by polls to be able to win a majority in the metropolis of Durban on the east coast, only won 41% of the votes there at mid-counting. The CSIR projects a final score of 32%.

A little more than one in two South African voters traveled on Wednesday to vote in the municipal elections, according to the electoral commission.

The participation, of 54.45%, is in line with expectations, namely higher than in 2021 during the Covid pandemic (45.86%) but lower than 2016 (57.95%).

© 2026 AFP

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