Key things to watch for in SA’s municipal elections

South African political parties that have presided over crumbling infrastructure and a collapse in electricity and water provision face a reckoning in Wednesday’s municipal elections.

Voting began at 7 a.m. local time and is due to end at 9 p.m., with the electoral commission expected to release the results within three days.

More than 29 million people have registered to cast ballots in the contest for seats in the 257 local and district councils, with disillusionment running high over how many are being managed.

Much of the anger over potholed roads and slipshod basic services have been directed against President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress, which lost its national majority in 2024 elections for the first time since it took power three decades earlier.

A series of opinion polls show its support slipping further, with the Democratic Alliance, its main rival, and former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party, or