The African National Congress lost big in local elections, falling to its worst showing since South Africa became a democracy 32 years ago. Many voters in Johannesburg faced water outages on Wednesday, fueling frustration. "Now, we don't have water," said Luleka Ngqangqashe. The party now holds only 20 percent support.
The African National Congress lost big in local elections, turning a once-dominant force credited with overturning apartheid into "any other political party."
Few things unite South Africans like a dry faucet.
That's what thousands of residents of Africa's richest city, Johannesburg, woke up to on Wednesday before voting in local government elections. From the impoverished mostly Black township of Diepsloot to the racially mixed upper-middle-class Midrand to exclusive Hyde Park, which the president calls home, many voters expressed the same frustration as they left the polls.
"Now, we don't have water," said Luleka Ngqangqashe, 35 and unemployed. "Imagine."
Some chalked up the Election Day outages to divine timing, others to political sabotage and still others to, well, life in Johannesburg. In any case, they were a reminder of the government failures that led the overwhelming majority of voters in this city of nearly five million people to vote against the nation's once-dominant political, social and moral force: the African National Congress.
With most of the votes tallied by Sunday, the A.N.C. was projected to win around 20 percent of the vote in Johannesburg, down from 33 percent in the last local election five years ago. Its biggest rival, the Democratic Alliance, led by its combative mayoral candidate, Helen Zille, was far ahead at about 35 percent.
The results in Johannesburg, the country's most populous city and economic engine, were indicative of the beating the A.N.C. took in mayoral and City Council races across the nation. The party, which for years rode a wave of good will for having led the country out of the racial oppression of apartheid, produced its worst electoral showing since South Africa became a democracy 32 years ago.
Less than a third of South Africans nationally cast ballots for the A.N.C., a decline of roughly 15 percentage points from five years ago. The party was projected to finish first in just two of South Africa's eight major cities, compared with six in the previous election.