South Africa’s African National Congress party faced its worst election results ever on Sunday (November 8, 2026) and a new low point on its gradual decline in popularity as voters rebuked it for a failure to deliver basic services like water and electricity in towns and cities.
The ANC’s popularity has declined for more than a decade. Voters across South Africa have long expressed frustration over failed public services that have left many cities and towns with regular water and electricity outages, broken roads and streetlights, and uncollected refuse. The once-dominant ANC — the party of Nelson Mandela — had received around 30% of the vote in Wednesday’s (November 4, 2026) local government elections with 99% of ballots counted. The final results were expected late on Sunday (November 8, 2026), according to the Independent Electoral Commission. The ANC remained the largest party by total share in an election involving hundreds of parties, but the Democratic Alliance that is its main Opposition had received around 25% of votes in the near-complete count. That brought closer to reality the once-unthinkable notion that the ANC that led South Africa out of the white minority rule of apartheid and delivered freedom in 1994 under Mandela might one day not be its biggest party. It used to command 70% of the vote. It won 45% support in the last local elections in 2021, the first time it had dropped below 50% in any election. In 2024, it then lost its Parliamentary majority for the first time in a national election, which brought about a coalition national government and a seismic shift in South African politics. Another seven major parties shared around 30% of the vote in these local elections, which had more than 500 parties contesting and many picking up small shares. The MK Party led by former South African President Jacob Zuma, who broke away from the ANC and was expelled by it, held the third-largest share of votes at around 10%.
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said his party — which was around 20% points behind the ANC in the 2024 national election — had now “taken a big step forward” in its aim to be South Africa’s biggest.
