South Africa’s Local Power Faces Service Backlash

Mduduzi Makhubo, a 45-year-old Soweto resident, said he planned to vote against local leaders’ arrogance and try to change the system. “Every Monday we know we won't have water after 2pm,” he told the BBC. On Wednesday, Nov. 4, South Africans voted in municipal elections as unreliable water and electricity, unemployment, crime, unaffordable housing, poor roads, sanitation and refuse collection weakened confidence in local authorities. The people enduring those failures are being asked to choose who will manage the same municipal structures.

Services, Votes and the People Waiting

At Lawley informal settlement south of Johannesburg, long queues formed outside polling stations. Sabelo Zulu, a 37-year-old engineer, worried that a tight result would leave municipalities with hung councils and unstable coalitions. “If it goes to coalitions we don't really have a say, they (political parties) have to compromise. The coalition thing is throwing us off,” he told Reuters. Themba Ntuli, a 47-year-old security guard, said, “I am hoping things will improve this time, especially where we live. What we need most is better service delivery.”

About 12 million people had cast ballots by 5 p.m., according to preliminary figures from the Electoral Commission of South Africa. More than 29 million people were registered at nearly 24,000 voting stations. The commission reported delays at some stations after local protests and heavy rain in parts of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal; earlier, it said 98% of stations had opened on time. The commission introduced handheld barcode scanners and sequence numbers on the voters’ roll to speed verification and reduce queues.

The ballot count was to begin after stations closed at 9 p.m. local time. Officials would count ballots at the stations where people cast them, with party agents, independent-candidate agents and accredited observers present. Anyone already at a station by closing time could still vote, even if voting continued past 9 p.m. Results were expected on Sunday.

A strike in Johannesburg had ended the night before the election after the City of Joburg agreed to pay workers R10 billion over two years. President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was pleased the strike had ended. The agreement followed workers’ collective action; the source reports no mutual-aid effort or other community-run service response.

The Ballot and the Coalition Bargain

The African National Congress fell below 50% support in municipal elections in 2021 and could fall below 40% nationally in this election, according to opinion polls. An Ipsos poll put the party at 30%, down from 46% in 2021, while the Democratic Alliance stood at 25%, compared with 22% in the previous vote. More than 500 political parties contested the elections. Poll numbers measure the contest for municipal office; they don’t themselves repair water systems or roads.

Johannesburg, the country’s commercial hub, was the biggest prize and remained up for grabs. The city had seven mayors since 2021 as successive coalition governments collapsed. Residents sometimes endured weeks without water or electricity, while motorists faced broken traffic lights and pothole-riddled roads. Helen Zille, the Democratic Alliance mayoral candidate, was projected by opinion polls to win the most votes but fall short of a majority. The DA was strongly favoured to retain control of Cape Town. Tshwane, eThekwini, Buffalo City and Mangaung were also among the municipalities where control was in play, and coalition politics was expected to shape nearly every metro council.

A recent auditor-general report gave clean audits, the highest standard of financial management, to 39 of South Africa’s 257 municipalities for the 2024/25 financial year. None of Gauteng’s three metropolitan municipalities—Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni—made the list. Auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke warned lawmakers that Johannesburg needed sustained attention to prevent further deterioration in its finances and services. “If we don't do that, we are going to continue on this slide where financial health deteriorates [and] where service delivery continues to be compromised, which is what we are living,” she said.

Officials Promise a Better Chapter

The election results will determine how local governments are run over the next five years and could shape the balance of power ahead of the 2029 general election. They may also influence the ANC succession contest as Ramaphosa approaches the expected end of his term as party leader in 2027. The ANC has governed South African politics since 1994; after losing its parliamentary majority for the first time in 2024, it formed a national government of unity with opposition parties.

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe urged party members to accept the results and protect the commission’s credibility. “Don't query the results, don't create problems for the IEC [Electoral Commission of South Africa], don't discredit them, give the IEC its credibility even if you're not happy,” he said. He said the ANC should first try to win as many municipalities as possible on its own, and that coalition governments should work where they were needed. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't,” he said of the national government of unity. Ramaphosa, who acknowledged that local-government failures had damaged public confidence in democratic governance, called the vote “an opportunity to turn this around.”