Municipal in South Africa: undermined by business, the ANC hopes to limit the damage

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addressing his ANC supporters in Sebokeng on October 29, 2021, ahead of the local elections on November 1.

AP - Jerome Delay

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Voting day Monday, November 1 in South Africa, which is holding its local elections.

More than 26 million registered citizens are called to the polls to elect their representatives in 257 municipalities.

The African National Congress (ANC), in decline since 2006 during these local elections due to the mismanagement of some cities and the accumulation of corruption cases, hopes to avoid the worst and keep the majority municipalities.

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With our correspondent in Johannesburg,

These elections

are above all a test for the party in power.

In the last local election in 2016, the ANC had already suffered a serious setback by losing the cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth.

From now on, the party hopes not to fall below the symbolic bar of 50% of the votes nationwide.

And for this, President Cyril Ramaphosa gave of his person, offering to use his image on campaign posters and increasing travel to the end.

He chose to play the “mea culpa” card by acknowledging

at the local level, while according to the Auditor General, the management of the finances of the local executives has generally worsened in recent years. .

But the ANC's slowdown will not necessarily benefit the main opposition party, the

, which has been criticized for its lack of representativeness.

Finally, the partly proportional voting system and the fragmentation of the political landscape should, according to experts, lead to the emergence of more coalition governments, especially in large cities, while the absolute majority will be difficult to achieve.

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• South Africa

• Cyril Ramaphosa