DA and ActionSA gains expose growing voter disillusionment with ANC

The ANC's declining support, poor service delivery and political fragmentation are reshaping South Africa's political landscape. The growing support for the DA and ActionSA in last week’s local government elections signals a significant shift in South Africa’s political landscape, according to experts. But analysts said the rise of parties on the right of the political spectrum has less to do with their own appeal than with the declining fortunes of the ANC and other progressive forces. ANC losing voter confidence Observers believe the ANC, in particular, has lost the confidence of many voters who are searching for new political homes. Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said this trend is not unique to South Africa. Across Africa, liberation movements are steadily losing ground as their historic liberation credentials become less influential. Mathekga and other experts were reacting to the improved performance of the DA and ActionSA in the local elections. DA and ActionSA make electoral gains Among the country’s five largest political parties, the DA and ActionSA are the only parties to increase their support compared with the 2024 general election. The DA grew from 21.81% to 24.64% nationally, while ActionSA surged from 1.2% to 5.67%, leapfrogging from the eighth-largest party to fifth place nationally. Their growth has coincided with the weakening of parties broadly considered part of the left, including the ANC, the EFF and uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, although many political analysts and left-wing activists dispute whether MK should be classified as a leftist formation. Service delivery failures drive voter dissatisfaction Another political analyst, Ntsikelelo Breakfast said the election results suggest the ANC’s losses have translated directly into gains for the DA. “The ANC is suffering because it has lowered the bar too much. It’s not about race or growing white supremacy, as EFF leader Julius Malema claims. ANC voters are simply abandoning the party,” Breakfast said. He said many South Africans have become disillusioned by government’s failure to address basic concerns such as service delivery and reliable electricity supply. “Energy is a national need and if you deprive people of energy, it has a national impact. People feel strongly about this issue and they have crossed racial barriers in looking for alternatives. That is why the DA’s numbers are rising,” he said. Despite the ANC’s decline, Breakfast said the party’s political fortunes can still be reversed. According to him, the party could regain public trust if it addresses service delivery failures and becomes more responsive to citizens’ concerns. “People can fall in love with a political party and fall out of love with it over time. But that party must mend its ways, listen to what people want and stop ignoring them,” he said. DA’s national ambitions and political divisions Breakfast said the prospect of the DA eventually leading a national government is no longer far-fetched. “The DA has consistently been on an upward trajectory. The possibility of it one day assuming the reins of power cannot be dismissed,” he said. Yet, both the ANC and its opponents face a major obstacle: political fragmentation. The DA and ActionSA remain at odds on the one hand, while, on the other hand, the ANC, MK and EFF continue to be hampered by lingering tensions and unresolved grievances that could prevent cooperation against their ideological rivals. Relations between key leaders, including the DA’s Helen Zille and ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba, have been strained. Breakfast said bad blood persists across the political spectrum, most recently between the ANC and the SA Communist Party, which chose to contest local elections independently rather than under the ANC banner. Poor governance weakens progressive politics For Mathekga, the decline of progressive politics is largely self-inflicted. He said liberation movements and left-leaning parties squandered their political capital through poor governance and mismanagement of state resources, resulting in a failure to defend the transformation agenda they once championed.