ANC faces bruising defeat in South African local elections with 80% of ballots counted

Former liberation movement’s share of national vote almost 14 percentage points below 2021 result The African National Congress is on course to suffer a bruising defeat in South Africa’s local elections, with the once dominant party of Nelson Mandela falling to under a third of the vote nationally with more than 80% of ballots counted. Wednesday’s fragmented vote marks another stage in the decline of the ANC, which has led national governments since the end of white minority apartheid rule in 19