JOHANNESBURG - South Africans are voting on Wednesday in a closely watched local government election, with control of major cities at stake and the results set to gauge the political mood ahead of the next national vote.
It comes as a weary electorate contends with crumbling infrastructure, dry taps, persistent inequality and unemployment above 30 percent, deepening public disillusionment with the political establishment.
Voting has been largely incident-free more than four hours after polls opened at 7am, with stations due to close at 9pm.
Moses Mashaba, a 27-year-old street vendor from Soweto, said he was driven to vote by the sense that "things have been horrible".
"Sometimes we don't have water or electricity. There is also a high unemployment rate, which has been frustrating," he told AFP.
The frustrations were echoed hundreds of kilometres away in Cape Town, where Thembinkosi Somana, 50, was first in line to cast his ballot at a polling station in Langa, the city's oldest township.
"I want things to change... people must get work. People mustn't suffer," he said.
More than 29 million voters are registered but the last municipal elections in 2021 drew turnout of just 46 percent.
Some 2.6 million people were allowed to vote early on Monday and Tuesday but only 1.4 million did so, the electoral commission said.
In Gqeberha, 26-year-old Shane Jacob, who is unemployed, shared a cigarette with two friends as they watched voters go to the polling station in the working-class neighbourhood of Helenvale.
"Voting? Never, not again. I have been voting since 2018, and what did I get? Nothing," he said. "My life has not changed if anything it has gotten worse."
The ANC, which led the country's liberation struggle, remains projected to emerge as the largest party nationally, but polls point to a further erosion of its support.
Once the dominant force in South African politics, the party of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela fell below 50 percent of the vote for the first time in the 2021 municipal elections.
It suffered further losses at the 2024 national vote, securing just over 40 percent and forcing it into a power-sharing government of national unity with nine other parties.
The DA, the second-largest party, has set its sights on Johannesburg, campaigning hard to capitalise on mounting complaints about the condition of roads, uncollected rubbish and other service delivery failures in the ANC bastion.
Meanwhile, the breakaway opposition uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, led by former president Jacob Zuma, is mounting a strong challenge for the east coast port city of Durban.
MK made a dramatic electoral breakthrough in 2024, drawing support away from the ANC to finish third nationally, with 14.5 percent of the vote.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was "excited, confident and encouraged" by the turnout, declaring that "our democracy is alive".
"We as government are determined to rebuild our local government structure to ensure that what was promised... become a reality," he said after casting his ballot.
Coalitions
South Africans elect municipal councillors, who choose mayors and form the administrations to run their cities.
With outright majorities far from assured in several major cities, the vote could usher in another round of complex coalition negotiations, as parties bargain over the alliances needed to govern.
Coalition rule is already a feature of local government, with 74 of the 257 municipalities governed by coalitions or minority administrations as of February 2026, according to the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection.
Final results, expected on Sunday, will offer a clearer picture of the political landscape before the next general election in 2029.
They will also carry implications for the ANC's own future, with the party due to elect a new leader at its December 2027 conference that will help determine who leads it into the next national race.
Voters are likely to be influenced by "bread and butter issues" such as water, electricity, roads and sewage rather than political loyalties, political analyst Kingsley Makhubela said.
"People are not going to vote on sentiments," the former diplomat told AFP.
He also argued that a coalition government could foster a new culture of political tolerance in South Africa's increasingly fragmented political landscape, where, for years, "the language... has been political enemies".
- By Jeanette Chabalala with AFP Correspondents In Durban, Gqeberha and Cape Town