LGE 2026: ANC only garners 13% support in WC with ¾ of the vote captured
It’s not been able to clinch a single municipality, even as a leading party, with 21 of the 25 councils in the province now decided.
Lindsay Dentlinger
Jeremiah Thuynsma, ANC Western Cape provincial convenor, at the ROC in Cape Town. Picture: Jared Moorgas/EWN
Jared Moorgas/EWN
The African National Congress (ANC) is once again on the back foot in Western Cape municipalities, having only garnered 13% support, with 75% of the votes now captured.
It hasn’t been able to clinch a single municipality, even as a leading party, with 21 of the 25 councils in the province now decided.
The party’s provincial convenor and contender for the Cape Town mayoralty Jerimia Thuynsma, believes the ANC’s reputation at the national level is impacting its electoral performance in the Western Cape.
In opposition for two decades in the City of Cape Town, the ANC’s provincial executive said negative perceptions about the party on a national level is trumping the desire of Western Cape supporters to vote for change and better service delivery in their communities.
Thuynsma said even though township communities live in squalor, they have not turned out to vote against the party that has put them in that position because of the ANC’s reputation in other parts of the country.
“They perceive the ANC to what they see [in the media] and whatever we tell them in the Western Cape and Cape Town and what they are actually experiencing doesn’t correlate, and therefore, they make decisions to stay away from our base areas where we get our votes from.”
Thuynsma acknowledged low voter turnout in its traditional strongholds has contributed to the low number of votes for the ANC, which is currently trailing with less than 10% of the vote in the Cape Town metro.
“We can no longer operate as the organisation as if we are a federal country. It can’t be that the national executive committee looks up there at issues and then makes national decisions and then when there are challenges in Cape Town, it is only Cape Town’s to resolve.”
Thuynsma said the ANC will continue working to improve the lives of communities, even from the opposition benches.