Motlanthe says ANC must fix service delivery after historic election losses - News24

The ANC can no longer bank on its history to win voters’ loyalty.

Former president Kgalema Motlanthe says the party’s devastating election performance should serve as a wake-up call that South Africans are voting on their lived experiences, and that no amount of political ideology can compensate for a lack of basic services.

Motlanthe, a veteran ANC member, said the party remained a central force in the country’s politics, having retained more ward seats than any other party in the 2026 local government elections, but stressed that this did not absolve it of its responsibility to improve service delivery.

“From the results, it’s clear the ANC is still a central organisation in the politics of our country – they have retained more wards than any other party, which of course means they still have to improve on service delivery,” he said.

Motlanthe was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Eastern and Southern African Commission on Drugs conference in Cape Town on Monday.

Motlanthe is the chairperson of the commission.

He said the ANC leadership had accepted the election results as a starting point for reflection, but cautioned that local government elections were fundamentally shaped by people’s everyday experiences rather than political ideology.

“They still have to ensure that. Because it is local government, people vote in accordance with their lived experience. If, on the day of voting, they [residents] have no potable water, they may state so. It’s not about ideology; it’s about basic services and lived experiences,” he said.

His remarks come as the ANC grapples with its worst electoral performance to date, with growing pressure on the party’s leadership to account for its losses and the erosion of support across the country.

For the first time in its history, the ANC secured more than 50% of the vote in only one province, Limpopo.

It also lost its position as the largest party in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, while its support in the Western Cape declined significantly, falling to 14.69% from 20.38% in the 2021 elections.

The DA overtook the ANC in all three of Gauteng’s metropolitan municipalities, while ActionSA made gains in several township wards across the province.

The decline in support in predominantly black voting districts is particularly concerning for the governing party.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said on Saturday that the party recognised that many South Africans who had previously supported the party had chosen to vote for other political parties, while others had withdrawn from electoral participation altogether.

“We recognise their concerns, we will not question their judgement or explain away their decisions,” he said.

Mbalula said the party needed to confront the reasons voters had become disillusioned with the movement, acknowledging that local government had failed communities through unreliable water supplies, failing infrastructure, uncollected refuse, deteriorating roads, corruption and poor municipal administration.

“Where public representatives have become distant from the people they were elected to serve, the people have every right to hold them accountable. And where our own internal divisions have distracted us from the needs of communities, we must accept responsibility,” he said.

He added that the ANC could no longer expect voters to support it simply because of its history.

“Our history gives us a responsibility to serve. It does not give us an entitlement to govern,” Mbalula said.

Mbalula has promised a thorough assessment of the election outcome.

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