South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) is on course for its worst electoral result ever, with 70 percent of votes tallied nationwide in this week's municipal elections showing the party that has ruled the country since the end of apartheid in 1994 on just 31.9 percent, according to official figures published on the Electoral Commission's website on Friday morning, Bloomberg reported.
Source: Bloomberg via The Telegraph (South Africa)
The count is a major new stage from the early results Awaaz Punjab reported on Thursday, when a projection based on the first counts had the Democratic Alliance (DA) close behind the ANC at about 31 percent. With far more districts now reported, the DA has eased to 24.6 percent — still up from its 21.7 percent in the 2021 municipal elections — while the ANC's share has held at its historic low.
Source: Electoral Commission of South Africa via Daily Investor
This report follows our November 5 early-results story, when roughly 15 percent of districts had reported and a CSIR projection put the DA near 31 percent. At 70 percent counted, the official tally has settled very differently. Read the early-results story
The Electoral Commission's national file timestamped 07:54 South African time on Friday recorded 16,899 of 23,696 voting districts, with 19,677,472 ballot papers counted — 19,332,722 of them valid and 344,750 spoilt. Completed municipalities rose to 108, and in most completed councils no single party holds a majority, pointing to coalition negotiations across much of the country.
Source: Electoral Commission file via UAN World
The scale of the ANC's fall is stark against its own history: the party won 45.6 percent in the last municipal elections in 2021 and just over 40 percent in the 2024 national vote, when it lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since taking power three decades earlier. Voters told reporters the punishment was about failing municipal services — water and electricity shortages, potholed roads and uncollected refuse.
Source: Daily Investor (Bloomberg)
DA leads six big cities, MK takes Durban
In the eight metropolitan municipalities watched most closely, the DA was leading in six — Johannesburg, Tshwane (Pretoria), Ekurhuleni, Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay and Mangaung — according to an analysis of proportional-representation ballots reported by Sunday World. In Johannesburg, the country's economic hub, the DA stood at about 41 percent at 06:50 local time against the ANC's 17 percent and ActionSA's 15.6 percent; in Cape Town the DA was above 60 percent.
Source: Electoral Commission figures via FlashInfo / Sunday World
Former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, contesting local elections for the first time, was leading in eThekwini (Durban) and across KwaZulu-Natal province, where Business Day reported it ahead with about a third of the provincial vote, in front of the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party. MK's national spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu told the paper the party was 'very, very happy' with its KwaZulu-Natal lead.
Source: Business Day
About 29.2 million people were registered to vote at 23,696 voting stations in Wednesday's elections, which chose councils for the country's metropolitan, district and local municipalities; those councils in turn choose mayors.
Source: Electoral Commission of South Africa
What happens next
The Electoral Commission is expected to release the final results and the allocation of seats for the 257 municipal councils over the weekend, with official results expected by Sunday, November 8. With most councils hung, the declaration will start a round of coalition bargaining that will decide who actually governs South Africa's biggest cities.