South Africa Local Elections 2026: ANC Loses Ground to ActionSA, DA

Early results from South Africa's 2026 local elections indicate a continued erosion of ANC dominance in both urban and rural municipalities, a trend that could reshape coalition politics nationally.

South Africa's African National Congress is losing support across municipal boundaries in the country's 2026 local government elections, according to early vote counts reported by Daily Maverick on November 5, 2026. Results were still being tallied as of Wednesday afternoon, but the direction of movement was consistent in both cities and rural areas.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) and ActionSA both recorded gains relative to prior elections, according to the same Daily Maverick report. The report did not specify the exact vote share percentages for each party at the time of publication, as counting remained ongoing.

The ANC has governed South Africa at the national level since the end of apartheid in 1994. In the 2021 local government elections, the party received approximately 46 percent of the vote nationally, its lowest result in a local election to that point, according to South Africa's Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) official results published in November 2021.

In the 2024 national and provincial elections, the ANC's share dropped further to approximately 40 percent, ending its outright parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994, according to IEC official results published in June 2024. That result forced the ANC into a Government of National Unity with multiple parties, including the DA.

ActionSA, founded by former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba in 2021, has positioned itself as a centrist alternative to the ANC. The party contested the 2021 local elections and secured representation in several municipalities, including Johannesburg, according to IEC records. Its continued growth in 2026, as indicated by Daily Maverick's early reporting, would represent a consolidation of its standing as a third force in South African politics.

The DA, which governs the Western Cape province and the City of Cape Town, has sought to expand its base beyond its historically dominant regions. Any gains in municipalities outside the Western Cape would mark a geographic broadening of its support, though the Daily Maverick report did not specify which particular municipalities showed the strongest DA movement.

Local government elections in South Africa determine control of municipalities, which are responsible for delivering services such as water, electricity, sanitation, and housing. Poor service delivery has been a central grievance cited by voters across party lines in multiple election cycles, according to reporting by South Africa's public broadcaster SABC and independent outlets over successive election periods.

The political composition of major metros such as Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni has been contested and unstable since 2016, when opposition parties first formed coalition governments in those cities. Those coalitions collapsed and reformed multiple times through 2021 and beyond, according to reporting by the Mail and Guardian and Daily Maverick across that period.

If the ANC fails to secure majorities in key municipalities in the 2026 count, it would be required to negotiate coalition arrangements again, a process that has historically produced governance instability at the local level. The final vote tallies from the IEC would confirm or revise the early directional signals reported on election day.

The implications of these local results extend to national political dynamics ahead of South Africa's next national election, scheduled for 2029. A continued decline in ANC local vote share would increase pressure on the party's internal leadership structures and its terms within the Government of National Unity. Full certified results from the IEC were not yet available at the time of publication.