For South Africa’s long-ruling African National Congress party, the outcome of local elections on Nov. 1 was a predictable disaster. All of this virtually guaranteed the party would face a backlash at the ballot box. When the votes were tallied, the ANC’s vote share had fallen to 45.6 percent, its lowest in any South African election of the democratic era and 8 points down from the 54 percent share it took in the 2016 local elections, which was considered a major disappointment at the time. The ANC lost over 600 municipal council seats as the party saw its support decline across all nine provinces. It secured outright majorities in only two of the country’s eight biggest cities, meaning the once-dominant ANC will now have to accept coalition government as the new normal in many parts of the country.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 17, 2021 13:55 UTC