South Africans vote on Wednesday in a closely watched local government election, with parties battling for control of major cities in a contest expected to gauge the national mood before the next national polls.

The vote comes as a weary electorate contends with crumbling infrastructure, dry taps, persistent inequality and unemployment above 30 per cent, deepening public disillusionment with the political establishment.

Polling stations open at 7:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) and close at 9:00 p.m.

More than 29 million voters are registered, but the last municipal elections in 2021 drew fewer than half of them to the polls, with turnout at just 46 per cent.

Of the 2.6 million people approved to cast special votes over two days, only 1.4 million did so, the electoral commission said Tuesday.

The African National Congress, which led the country’s liberation struggle, is still projected to emerge as the largest party nationally, but polls point to further erosion of its support.

Once the dominant force in South African politics, the party of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela fell below 50 per cent of the vote for the first time in the 2021 municipal elections.

It suffered further losses at the 2024 national vote, securing just over 40 per cent and forcing it to share power in a government of national unity with nine other parties.

The liberal Democratic Alliance, the country’s second-largest party, has set its sights on Johannesburg, campaigning hard to capitalise on service delivery failures in the ANC bastion.

Meanwhile, the breakaway opposition uMkhonto weSizwe party, led by former president Jacob Zuma, is mounting a strong challenge for the east coast port city of Durban.

MK made a dramatic electoral breakthrough in 2024, drawing support away from the ANC to finish third nationally, with 14.5 per cent of the vote.

“We are going to start by taking back our country here,” Mr Zuma said on Sunday in Durban, a city at the centre of growing anti-migrant sentiment that has become a prominent theme of the election campaign.

(AAN/NAN)