The ANC has a mountain to climb

The ANC will have to come up with a miracle to regain lost ground in local government, especially metros, ahead of local government elections in 2026.

It’s a steep mountain to climb especially for a party that dropped its national and provincial support from just more than 55% to 40%. How the party will sell a different story to win votes in the upcoming local government elections in 2026 is anyone’s guess.

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s acknowledgement that errant municipalities were to blame for the party’s poor showing at national polls comes a little too late.

“Our analysis of the election result shows that the ANC experienced the greatest decline in its share of votes in the metros. The instability, dysfunction and poor performance of metros like Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini and Buffalo City are clearly reflected in the election results. We therefore need decisive interventions in these metros,” he said.

This newfound enthusiasm is evidently borne out of fear that the ANC could further lose the little of what it has in the metros, and rightly so.

The current state of the country’s municipalities is an eyesore largely due to malfeasance, in particular maladministration. If it’s not uncollected refuse piling up in the streets, it’s burst or blocked drains that pose health risks to children. Those lucky enough to have these repaired timeously are either experiencing challenges with the provision of water because of lack of maintenance or there are electricity outages owing to vandalism.

The quality of water has already been called into question by some of South Africa’s respected water bodies.

Year in and year out, Auditor-General Tsakane Maluleke’s reports paint a worrying picture of municipalities unable to do the most basic in balancing their books. For example, 268 material irregularities on non-compliance and suspected fraud in municipalities resulted in R5.2 billion material financial losses in 2021/22.

Extremely concerning was that 61 accounting officers in municipalities did not take appropriate action when Maluleke’s office notified them of the material irregularities.

If the picture in the recent national elections is anything to go by, there will be nothing left of the ANC come 2026. Even the DA will not be able to rescue it.

Cape Times