South African municipal elections set for November 4, president says
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa gestures while delivering the keynote address at the Sixth South Africa Investment Conference (SAIC) at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. March 31, 2026.
Johannesburg. South Africa will hold its next municipal elections on November 4, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a post on X.
The country holds municipal elections roughly every five years, and South Africans had been waiting to know the date of the next local government vote.
The biggest political party, Ramaphosa's African National Congress (ANC), has tended to do worse in municipal elections than national ones, as voters vent frustrations over deteriorating public infrastructure like roads and water pipes.
In the 2021 municipal elections, the ANC won less than half of the vote for the first time since the 1994 end of white minority rule.
That result turned out to be a forerunner for the 2024 national election, when the ANC lost its parliamentary majority, after which it formed a broad coalition government that saw Ramaphosa remain head of state.
