South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) has insisted that President Cyril Ramaphosa is under no pressure to resign, after the party recorded its worst election result since the end of apartheid in last week's municipal elections.

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu told reporters on Thursday, 12 November, that the party's leadership collective had no intention of asking Ramaphosa to step aside. "The president is going nowhere," she said. "There is no pressure on the part of this leadership collective for the president to leave."

Bhengu was speaking before a meeting of the ANC's National Executive Committee, which is deciding how the party should approach coalition negotiations after no party won a majority in many of the country's major cities, including Johannesburg.

Historic low for the ANC

The ANC's share of the vote fell to about 31% in the municipal elections, down from 46% at the last local vote in 2021. It is a new low for a party that once dominated South African politics and has governed the country since Nelson Mandela became president in 1994.

The result means the ANC will have to negotiate coalitions to run local government in much of the country, including its largest cities. The party's support has been falling steadily for years, as voters punish it over unemployment, corruption, failing public services and repeated power and water shortages.

Bhengu rejected suggestions that the leadership was divided over Ramaphosa's future, and dismissed as a "fabrication" a report by the local news website TimesLive that the president had considered stepping down as party leader after the election result.

Mbeki adds to the pressure

The denial came after former president Thabo Mbeki criticised Ramaphosa's leadership in an interview on a local podcast, saying it would be right for him and other ANC leaders to resign over the party's performance. Mbeki has criticised Ramaphosa's record before, and the two men have been at odds for decades, since Mbeki was chosen over Ramaphosa as Mandela's successor.

Ramaphosa, 74, has led the ANC since December 2017 and has been South Africa's president since February 2018. Under the party's current timetable, he is due to step aside as ANC leader in December 2027, after completing two five-year terms at the helm of the party. The party is due to elect his successor at its national conference that month.

Coalition talks ahead

The immediate task facing the ANC leadership is deciding its approach to coalition government. In Johannesburg and other major metros, the party must now strike deals with rivals it has spent years competing against, or risk being shut out of power in the cities where most South Africans live and work.

How those negotiations go will shape not only who runs South Africa's cities, but also the contest to succeed Ramaphosa. A party that can no longer win outright in its own heartlands faces hard questions about its leadership, its policies and its future — questions the ANC's top body will now have to confront in public.

For now, though, the party's official line is clear: Ramaphosa stays. Whether that holds through the coalition talks and into the long run-up to the December 2027 leadership conference remains to be seen.

Sources: Reuters and News Central TV.