ANC Braces for Bruising Local Elections as South Africans Vent Anger Over Water Outages and Power Cuts

South Africans head to the polls on Wednesday in municipal elections that are expected to deliver a sharp rebuke to the African National Congress, the party Nelson Mandela led to power in 1994. With voters frustrated by chronic water outages, rolling power cuts, and crumbling local infrastructure, polls suggest the ANC could capture less than a third of the vote—down from 45.6% in the 2021 local elections and 40.2% in last year's national vote. The decline underscores how service delivery failures are eroding support for the former liberation movement, even as it remains the country's largest political force. The outcome could reshape coalition politics in key metros and signal deeper trouble for the ANC ahead of the next national election. For millions of South Africans, this vote is less about ideology and more about whether their taps run and their lights stay on.