• Analysis
ANC municipal elections: party at 32% with 71% of South Africa local votes counted
South Africa's ANC stood at 32 percent of the vote in municipal elections with 71 percent of ballots counted, results announced on a Friday showed, putting the party on course for its worst local result and opening coalition talks over the country's biggest cities.
Partial count puts ANC at 32 percent
Partial results from South Africa's local elections put the ANC on 32 percent of the vote, with the Democratic Alliance second on 25 percent, according to results announced on a Friday covering 71 percent of ballots.
If that figure holds, the ANC vote share would fall by about 14 percentage points from its 2021 municipal result - a result that was already the party's worst in history.
- •ANC: 32 percent of votes counted so far
- •Democratic Alliance: 25 percent
- •Ballots counted: 71 percent
Analyst: ANC voters backed alternative parties
Louw Nel, senior political analyst at Oxford Economics Africa, read the turnout figures as a sign that ANC supporters had switched rather than abstained: instead of staying away, as many expected, they had shown up and voted for alternative parties.
Calling a 32 percent result "the party's worst nightmare coming true", he framed the shift as defection rather than abstention.
"the party's worst nightmare coming true"
Coalition talks to decide the big cities
The projected outcome points to coalition talks deciding control of major cities such as Johannesburg, extending a decline that already pushed the ANC into a national governing coalition after the 2024 election.
The Democratic Alliance is on course to win an outright majority in Cape Town, while hung councils are forecast in Johannesburg, the country's biggest city, and in Tshwane, home to the administrative capital Pretoria.
In eThekwini, the municipality centred on Durban, the outcome remains unclear: former President Jacob Zuma is hoping his party, a splinter from the ANC, can seize a majority there.
A decline years in the making
The ANC has been South Africa's largest party since leading the country out of apartheid in 1994. Its vote share has fallen as voters have punished it for high crime and unemployment, corruption scandals and failing basic services like water and electricity.
Analysts say an ANC partnership with the Democratic Alliance, mirroring their national government arrangement, would be the best route to stability in cities like Johannesburg - though the two are ideologically opposed on key issues such as racial redress.
Over two-thirds of votes had been counted so far, and final results were expected later in the day.
