South Africa’s ANC suffers setback in local elections

With 99 percent of votes counted, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s party wins 31 percent nationally.

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Helen Zille, the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, speaks at the party’s final campaign rally in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, on October 31, 2026 [Ilaria Finizio/AFP]

Coalition talks

Since no party won more than 50 percent of the votes in many cities, including South Africa’s commercial hub Johannesburg, the ANC and DA will have to team up or hash it out with smaller parties to form municipal governments.

Parties will have 14 days to negotiate before city councils are formed.

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula called the result “catastrophic” for the ANC but said the party would not go begging for positions when coalition talks begin soon.

“When the people tell us we have fallen short, … the honest answer is not to argue with them but to go home and put our house in order,” Mbalula said on Saturday.

In Johannesburg, the DA led the count with about 35 percent of the votes, compared with 20 percent for the ANC.

That could give DA veteran Helen Zille, who campaigned on fixing potholes and leaking water pipes, a good chance of becoming mayor, depending on the coalition agreements reached.

The DA said in a statement that it would initiate coalition discussions with “political parties that share a commitment to clean and accountable government, rooting out corruption, service delivery for all, the rule of law, and non-racialism”.