ANC leads South Africa's local polls but records all-time election low: final results

The African National Congress came in first place in South Africa's local elections but suffered its worst-ever electoral setback, according to final results on Saturday.

While still the largest party in the country, the once-dominant ANC has won just 32.5% of the vote.

Frustrated voters have turned to the Democratic Alliance, the MK party and other smaller lists.

The ANC's performance marks a drop of roughly 14 percentage points from its 2021 local election results.

The party has failed to win an outright majority in any of the eight metropolitan municipalities. But it finished ahead in four of them, including Johannesburg, Mangaung and Buffalo City.

The centre-right Democratic Alliance is the second-largest party, with about 22.9% of the vote. The party came first in Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane, and has secured a majority in Cape Town.

Former president Jacob Zuma's MK party is finishing in third place nationally with around 9.9% of the vote, and came first in the metro of eThekwini.

The results point to a fragmented political landscape. With the results now in, the parties will need to engage in coalition negotiations to form governing alliances.

With outright majorities elusive in several major cities, the results will usher in complex coalition negotiations as parties bargain to assemble the alliances needed to govern.

Such marriages of convenience have often proved unstable, leaving local administrations consumed by internal wrangling at the expense of basic service delivery.

The national government's existing coalition arrangements could further complicate negotiations, political analyst Daniel Silke told AFP.

Voters in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria, would probably prefer to see the DA govern alongside centre-right ActionSA, he said.

"But the animosity between those two parties is extreme."