Polls suggest the ruling party could fall below 40 percent as voters weigh poor services. Published November 4, 2026 November 4, 2026 South Africans are voting in local elections widely seen as a verdict on the African National Congress (ANC), the party that led the country out of white minority rule in 1994 but has been steadily losing support over the past decade. (19:00 GMT). According to the South African Electoral Commission (IEC), a record 29.2 million people are registered to vote at 23,696 polling stations. More than 1.4 million special votes were cast on Monday and Tuesday. Recommended stories list of 3 itemsend of list Voters elect councils for the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district councils and 205 local councils. Those councils then elect the mayors. The ANC fell below 50 percent in municipal polls for the first time in 2021. In the 2024 national election, it lost its parliamentary majority and was forced to form a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and other parties. Polls suggest support for the ANC could fall below 40 per cent this time. “Municipal failures have contributed to declining public confidence in democratic governance,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter, “From the President’s Desk.” Ramaphosa is due to vote at Hyde Park High School in Johannesburg, the presidency said. Johannesburg is the biggest prize in this election. The country’s financial capital has had five mayors in four years. The district attorney has appointed its 75-year-old former leader, Helen Zille, to the city’s top job. His campaign stunts included snorkeling in a mud-filled ditch that was flooded by a broken municipal water pipe. A News24 poll put Zille at 36 per cent, meaning he would need coalition partners, particularly the ANC, to govern. Zille told the Associated Press news agency that the ANC was “in free fall.” This is the first local vote for former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which is posing a strong challenge in the coastal city of Durban. “We are going to start by taking back our country here,” Zuma told supporters in the city on Sunday, the AFP news agency reported. Durban has become a center of anti-immigrant sentiment, a prominent issue in the campaign. Participation may be a cause for concern. Only 46 percent of registered voters participated in the 2021 municipal elections. Coalition government is already widespread: In February, 74 of the country’s 257 municipalities were run by coalitions or minority administrations, according to the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection. Police said 21 election-related cases have been registered since Sunday. KwaZulu-Natal has 165 polling stations classified as high risk, the most of any province. Final results are expected on Sunday. They are expected to shape the race to succeed Ramaphosa as ANC leader at the party’s conference in December 2027. A drone view shows people queuing to vote outside a polling station during local government elections in the Lawley informal settlement, south of Johannesburg, South Africa, on November 4, 2026. [Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
