South Africa's African National Congress is heading for its worst election result since the end of apartheid, with near-complete results from last week's local government elections putting the party on about 30.8% of the national vote. Reuters reported on Sunday that with 99% of votes counted the ANC had 31% against 25% for its main rival, the Democratic Alliance, while figures reported by Newsday put the ANC on 30.76% with 99.95% of voting districts counted.

The result is almost 15 percentage points below the 45.6% the ANC won in the 2021 municipal elections, and less than half of the 64.9% it took in 2006. The party has won 3,236 council seats across the country, down from 4,545 in 2021, and controls only 53 of the country's 213 councils outright. It has no outright majority in any of the eight metropolitan municipalities.

The Democratic Alliance finished second nationally on about 24.6%, followed by former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe Party on about 9.7%, the Economic Freedom Fighters on 6.2% and ActionSA on 5.7%. In Johannesburg, the country's commercial hub, the DA led the count with about 35% of votes against 20% for the ANC, while the DA was set to keep its absolute majority in Cape Town.

The Electoral Commission was expected to declare the final results on Sunday evening. With no party winning more than half the vote in many cities, the ANC and DA will have to negotiate with smaller parties to form majority municipal governments, and parties will have 14 days to negotiate before city councils are formed. Reuters reported that the ANC's vote share has fallen steadily in local elections over the last 15 years, due largely to failures in basic services such as water and electricity.