ANC Under Pressure as South Africans Vote in Local Elections Amid Service Delivery Anger

South Africans are voting on Wednesday in highly contested local elections that are widely expected to see a further erosion of support for the African National Congress (ANC), the country's biggest party. More than 500 parties are contesting the polls, in which leaders are vying to head nearly 300 municipalities responsible for basic services such as water, electricity and refuse collection. The campaign season has been marked by vivid stunts, including politicians spinning cars, watching grannies knit and wading through giant potholes. For the ANC, the elections are a chance to prove it still has what it takes to govern after a disastrous showing in the last national election, when it lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994. Support for the party has fallen from a peak of 70% in the 2004 general election to 40% two decades later, driven by anger over corruption, unemployment and crime. Polls and pundits have predicted further losses, but President Cyril Ramaphosa rejected the idea that his party was in a downward spiral. "What I'm seeing here is that the ANC is going higher and higher and on the 4th [of November] we will show those naysayers," he told supporters at the party's final rally on Sunday. In Alexandra, a township north-east of Johannesburg where the ANC has traditionally enjoyed strong support, poor governance and voter apathy are unravelling that base. The BBC spoke to 18-year-old first-time voter Sanele Ntombela, who said he hoped voting might lead to change. "We face many challenges in Alexandra. There's rubbish everywhere and we struggle with electricity and water and many other issues," he said. Most of his friends said they had not registered and did not intend to vote, citing a lack of change and deteriorating services. Nearby, Zandile Mncube, 33, said she would not vote despite being registered. "It makes no difference [whether I vote or not]. Things have gotten worse over the years," she said. The contrast with neighbouring Sandton, Africa's richest square mile, is stark. While Sandton boasts skyscrapers, designer shops and well-maintained roads, Alexandra's houses are tightly packed, rubbish is strewn across pavements and the stench of raw sewage hangs in the air. Similar patterns of neglect are visible across Gauteng province. In Soweto, south of Johannesburg, 45-year-old resident Mduduzi Makhubo described daily struggles with water and electricity. "Every Monday we know we won't have water after 2pm," he said. He intends to vote to challenge what he called the "arrogance" of local leaders. Years of auditor-general reports have highlighted the dire state of most of South Africa's 257 municipalities. A recent report gave only 39 clean audits between 2024 and 2025, and none of Gauteng's three metro cities, Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, featured on the list. Auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke told lawmakers earlier this year that Johannesburg "needs ongoing attention", warning that without it the country would continue on a slide of deteriorating financial health and compromised service delivery. Johannesburg has been labelled "effectively bankrupt". An Ipsos poll puts ANC support at 30%, down from 46% at the last local elections in 2021, while the Democratic Alliance (DA) is predicted to rise to 25% nationally, up from 22%, with gains expected especially in Johannesburg. DA leader Helen Zille, a former Cape Town mayor vying for the mayoral chain in the city, has run an eye-catching campaign that included swimming in crater-sized potholes, ziplining over sinkholes and riding into her final rally in a classic BMW 325i known locally as a "Gusheshe". She told radio station 702 that "towns and cities that work best are under DA governance". Political analyst Melanie Verwoerd, a former ANC MP and ambassador to Ireland, said the elections would be a "verdict ... and judgment" on the ANC, with the expectation that the party would perform the worst it ever has. She predicted coalitions would remain the order of the day across Gauteng, where all three metros are already governed by coalitions with the ANC as the largest party. Such arrangements have often been unstable, with frequent leadership changes affecting service delivery. Verwoerd said the most stable coalitions would replicate the ANC-DA power-sharing arrangement at national level, and noted the DA was unlikely to lose Cape Town, widely considered the country's best-performing metro and DA-run since the late 2000s. In eThekwini, which includes Durban, the picture is less certain. The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, founded by former president Jacob Zuma and the biggest party in KwaZulu-Natal in the 2024 provincial election, is projected to perform well but polls suggest it will fall short of an outright majority. Verwoerd said forming a government there would be "very messy" given the party's refusal to work with either the ANC or DA. A confident Zuma vowed on Sunday to take control of a number of municipalities. Analyst Dr Levy Ndou agreed that an ANC-DA coalition seemed unavoidable in most metros, while questioning whether the national government of unity could influence how the metros are run. Both analysts also flagged declining voter turnout. More than 29 million citizens are registered to vote, but participation, especially among young people, has steadily fallen. Ndou attributed this to the calibre of candidates and the low visibility of local councillors in campaigns. The electoral commission has seven days to announce the results, and parties then have 14 days to form governing structures.