Nelson Mandela’s ANC party hits new low in South Africa’s local elections

South Africa’s African National Congress party was handed its worst election results ever Sunday in a new low point on its gradual decline in popularity as voters rebuked it for a failure to deliver basic services like water and electricity in towns and cities.

The once-dominant ANC — the party of Nelson Mandela — received 31% of the vote in Wednesday’s local government elections, according to official results Sunday.

The ANC remained the largest party by total share in an election involving hundreds of parties, but the Democratic Alliance that is its main opposition won 25% of votes.

That brought closer to reality the once-unthinkable notion that the ANC that led South Africa out of the white minority rule of apartheid and delivered freedom in 1994 under Mandela might one day not be its biggest party. It used to command 70% of the vote.

The ANC’s popularity has declined for more than a decade. It won 45% support in the last local elections in 2021, the first time it had dropped below 50% in any election. In 2024 it then lost its Parliamentary majority for the first time in a national election, which brought about a coalition national government and…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business