Anger over water and power failures puts the ANC on course for a bruising result in South Africa's local elections

South Africans voted in local elections on Wednesday, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) on course for a bruising result amid deep discontent over water outages, power cuts and crumbling infrastructure.

The former liberation movement, which Nelson Mandela led to power in 1994 at the end of apartheid, is still likely to be the largest party. However, polls showed it winning less than a third of the vote, down from 45.6% at the last municipal elections in 2021 and 40.2% in the 2024 national elections.

In Kensington, a diverse Johannesburg suburb that has endured repeated water and power outages in recent weeks, voters said they wanted change. The city is currently led by ANC mayor Dada Morero, in coalition with the leftwing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the rightwing populist Patriotic Alliance (PA).

"Service delivery is bad, it's horrible," said Tshepiso Makotse, 26, a call centre worker. "Water, electricity — everything, basically." She said she had split her two votes, backing the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) local councillor with one and the leftwing uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party of former ANC president Jacob Zuma with her party vote. "I just want change," she said.

Terrence Pieters, a retired boilermaker, said Johannesburg's infrastructure was "shot". The 72-year-old would not say which party he voted for, other than that it was "one of the offshoots of the DA". He hoped things would get better under good leadership, but expected no single party to take over — the outcome would be a coalition.

Vote fragmentation means the ANC could still end up leading many city coalition governments while losing control of others. Unstable coalitions are already a feature of many of South Africa's 257 municipalities, and analysts point to their high turnover as a major reason for poor service delivery.

Johannesburg, a city of 4.8 million people, has faced water shortages for more than a week and has had 10 mayors in as many years. Neighbouring Ekurhuleni has had three mayors since 2021. In Tshwane, which contains the capital Pretoria, the mayoralty has rotated between parties four times since 2020. In October, more than 800 people contracted a gastrointestinal illness from contaminated water in Bronkhorstspruit, in east Tshwane.

According to South African media, the ANC's national leadership is open to working with the DA in Gauteng — mirroring the government of national unity, where the two parties are the largest national coalition partners — but local ANC leaders are reportedly not in favour of the tie-up.

In Johannesburg, the DA's Helen Zille has led a spirited campaign, with viral stunts including the 75-year-old former Cape Town mayor snorkelling in a pothole and kayaking along a flooded street. But she is still viewed with suspicion by many, especially black voters, over controversial past comments appearing to excuse colonialism. Some voters also point to soaring housing costs in Cape Town, run by the DA since 2006.

Former Johannesburg DA mayor Herman Mashaba, who now leads ActionSA — polling around 10% — has ruled out working with Zille in Johannesburg. Mashaba has called Zille a "racist", an allegation she has always fervently denied.

In the eThekwini metro, which contains the port city of Durban, the MK party was polling above 40%. Its 84-year-old leader Zuma is set to take many votes from his former party, which won 42% in eThekwini in 2021 and is now polling around 10%. The DA looks set to retain its majority in Cape Town, although probably with less than the 58% it won in 2021.

Wednesday's vote chooses councillors and parties; mayors are not directly elected. The electoral commission will have a week to announce the final results, after which parties will have two weeks to form councils and elect mayors.