South Africa’s local vote keeps service delivery in focus

South Africa's local elections were not about big speeches in parliament. They were about daily life — water, electricity, rubbish, roads, and streetlights.

Voters went to the polls on Wednesday, 4 November, to choose local councillors who run the country's eight biggest cities as well as its 44 district and 205 local municipalities.

For many voters, the question was simple: does my municipality work?

What voters were choosing

• Councillors who decide local budgets and priorities
• Mayors and councils who run cities like Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, and Cape Town
• Service delivery — who fixes leaks, collects refuse, repairs roads, and keeps the lights on

Local government is the closest government to the people. When it fails, people feel it the same day.

Why the ANC test matters

This election was a major test for the African National Congress (ANC), the party of Nelson Mandela that has led South Africa since the end of apartheid.

With almost all ballots counted, the ANC received around 31% of the vote — its worst-ever result in any election. That is a steep fall from 45% in the last local elections in 2021.

The ANC remained the largest party overall, but its main rival, the Democratic Alliance (DA), was close behind on around 25%.

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula called the outcome catastrophic and said the party must enter a period of soul-searching to win back trust.

The fall did not start this week. In 2024, the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time and was forced to form a government of national unity.

How water, rubbish and local services shaped the mood

Across South Africa, voters have long complained about the same problems:

• Regular water and electricity outages
• Broken roads and streetlights
• Uncollected refuse piling up on streets
• Broken sewage systems and a shortage of housing

Those failures, along with long-held anger over corruption scandals connected to the ANC, were largely the key issues in this election.

In the words of one analyst, voters no longer see the ANC as the solution to the problems, but as the chief culprit.

What happens next

The ANC did not win an outright majority in any large metro. It came second to the DA in Johannesburg and in Tshwane, home to Pretoria, and third in eThekwini, which includes Durban, where former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party won the most votes.

That means more than half of councils are now hung, and parties have about two weeks to negotiate coalition governments.

President Cyril Ramaphosa urged parties to approach those talks with humility and to prioritise municipal stability over power struggles.

For ordinary South Africans, the test of those coalitions will not be who gets the mayor's chair. It will be whether water flows, refuse is collected, and lights stay on.

This local vote showed that in South Africa, loyalty is no longer enough. Performance is now the price of power .