South Africans are voting on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, in local elections widely seen as a verdict on the African National Congress (ANC), the party that led the country out of white minority rule in 1994 but has steadily lost support over the past decade.
Polls opened at 7am local time (05:00 GMT) and close at 9pm (19:00 GMT). A record 29.2 million people are registered to vote at 23,696 voting stations, according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC). More than 1.4 million special votes were cast on Monday and Tuesday.
Voters are electing councils for the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district councils and 205 local councils; those councils then choose mayors.
The ANC fell below 50 percent in municipal polls for the first time in 2021. In the 2024 national election, it lost its parliamentary majority and was forced into a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and other parties. Polls suggest the ANC’s support could drop below 40 percent this time.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter that “municipal failures have contributed to declining public trust and confidence in democratic governance”.
Johannesburg is the biggest prize; the financial capital has had five mayors in four years. The DA has fielded its 75-year-old former leader Helen Zille for the city’s top job; a News24 poll put her at 36 percent, meaning she would need coalition partners, particularly the ANC, to govern.
Wednesday is the first local vote for former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which is mounting a strong challenge in the coastal city of Durban.
Turnout may be a concern: only 46 percent of registered voters took part in the 2021 municipal elections. Final results are expected on Sunday and are expected to shape the race to succeed Ramaphosa as ANC leader at the party’s conference in December 2027.
Source: Al Jazeera
