ANC Negotiates City Coalitions After Worst Local Election Results

The African National Congress is navigating high-stakes coalition negotiations to determine the governance of South African cities following its worst-ever local election performance. The party's national vote share dropped to just over 30%, leaving approximately 65% of municipal councils—including Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni—without an outright majority.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and top party leaders met Thursday to strategize on four potential paths: leading a multiparty coalition, entering a grand coalition with the Democratic Alliance to stabilize metros, allowing the MK Party to govern alone in eThekwini to test its administrative fitness, or moving to the opposition benches to distance the party from patronage networks and service delivery failures.

While the ANC maintains a national unity government with the Democratic Alliance, the two parties face stark ideological differences, and the Democratic Alliance outperformed the ANC in Johannesburg and Tshwane. To counter this, the ANC has initiated talks with ActionSA, a breakaway party led by Herman Mashaba. In eThekwini, the MK Party secured the most votes with over 38%, further complicating the governance landscape. An official announcement regarding the ANC's strategic direction is expected Saturday.