ANC Slumps to Historic 30.76 Percent Votes

South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) suffered its worst electoral performance in history, securing just 30.76 per cent of the vote in municipal elections.

The unprecedented drop marks a steep decline from the nearly two-thirds majority the party captured in 1994, reflecting voter outrage over failing infrastructure, rampant water shortages, chronic power outages, and unemployment exceeding 34 per cent.

The results leave more than half of the country’s 213 municipal councils without an outright winner, forcing intense multiparty coalition negotiations across nearly all major urban hubs.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) took roughly a quarter of the national vote, securing the only outright metro majority in Cape Town while leading the count in Johannesburg under veteran politician Helen Zille.

Meanwhile, smaller groups like ActionSA hold crucial leverage as kingmakers in key battlegrounds such as Tshwane.

Addressing the severe losses, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula described the outcome as catastrophic and acknowledged the public’s dissatisfaction with neglected basic services.

Parties now face a strict 14-day statutory deadline to negotiate governing coalitions and elect city mayors before council deadlocks paralyse municipal operations.