ANC vows "soul searching" after election losses but says Ramaphosa will stay put

Days after a drubbing at the ballot box, the leaders of South Africa's ruling African National Congress met to discuss the way forward. The party has vowed to enter a period of "soul-searching" to see how to win back voters. But to remain in local government, it will have to engage with other parties. 

African National Congress national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said that President Cyril Ramaphosa will not resign, as the party's top leadership met on Thursday at the special National Executive Committee meeting to discuss the way forward following recent local government elections.

The party’s vote share dropped 15 percentage points to just 31 percent.

"There is a lot of fabrication about the President, that he has offered to resign, we urge South Africans to treat that as such. The ANC performance, this local government elections requires a proper reflection today. This is the day when that is going to happen," she said.

While speaking about how ANC will engage with other political parties in forming coalition governments in municipalities where no party secured an outright majority, Bhengu-Motsiri stated that the party respects the choice of the voters.

"This NEC will receive reports on the initial engagements with other political parties and consider the mandating guide for adoption. The guide will then set out the mandate for the ANC’s appointed negotiations team," she added.

The ANC, which once commanded 70 percent of the vote and had no challengers, conceded to being humbled in the local elections — its worst performance at the ballot box ever.

The party's secretary-general called it a “catastrophic outcome” for the ANC and said it would enter a period of soul-searching to see how it could win back the trust of South Africa's people.

Two years ago, the ANC lost its parliamentary majority in a national election with 40 percent of the vote. It considered that a disaster, and a chance for self-reflection, but its supporters have continued to desert it.

The ANC has often pointed to the difficulties in reversing nearly a half-century of racist laws under apartheid and hundreds of years of European colonialism before that.

But the most pressing problems for many South Africans in 2026 boil down to a failure of basic government services, with communities across the nation faced with a lack of electricity in their neighborhoods, broken or nonexistent water and sewage systems, garbage piling up on streets and a shortage of housing that leaves millions living in shacks.