President Cyril Ramaphosa at the ANC 113th anniversary at Nelson Mandela Park in Khayelitsha on January 11, 2025 in Cape Town. (Photo by Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
As the country gears up for the 2026 local government elections, the ANC is hoping to capitalise on the dissatisfaction of residents in areas like Khayelitsha in the Western Cape to win back power in Cape Town and other municipalities.
Cape Town has been under Democratic Alliance control since 2006, but some residents of Khayelitsha say they will make their voices heard through the ballot as they are living in “squalor” while affluent areas are well serviced.
Some of the residents believe the ANC, which has seen its support decline nationally and been relegated to the opposition in some of the country’s wealthiest metros, has learned from its past mistakes and is now seeking to make amends.
The governing party held its January 8 celebration in the township this weekend, saying this was an attempt to reconnect with its urban voter base in the Western Cape, which has been under DA control since 2009.
The township has high levels of crime and unemployment but is situated just 40 kilometers from Cape Town, one of South Africa’s wealthiest cities and a preferred international travel destination.
While the city prides itself on its well-maintained roads, visible policing, and a thriving tourism industry, residents of the poor communities of Cape Town say they experience a very different reality.
Khayelitsha resident Thandiswa Bolani said she would not be happy if the ANC went into a coalition with the DA after 2026, as the latter was an “oppressive party to black people in Khayelitsha”.
Bolani accused the DA of not servicing the mobile toilets it provides to the residents of the township.
“The DA undermines black people here. They are oppressive to black people here. We complain about blocked drains every day. We are struggling with the water pipes, which have to provide residents with water.”
“You get to this area, and the pipe is closed, and you are told it’s been open in another area. We are also told that we must boil the water they provide to us before drinking because it is not clean.”
“You’ll find rubbish piling up even though we have companies that have been hired to collect rubbish.”
She said the standards that “black people” have been subjected to in the province are not the same as those who are white or who live in affluent areas.
“I’m happy the ANC is leading the government nationally, and I wish they could be in charge for the next 100 years.”
Another resident, Malibongwe Jack, said he had “had enough” of the DA- led city government, contending that residents “want the ANC back”.
Jack said when the ANC lost the province, they were not doing well but that the DA had not improved service delivery or the standard of living in the township.
Jack is convinced the ANC has changed its ways.
“The ANC has seen their mistakes and they want to come back and correct them.”
The ANC has gone into coalitions with the DA nationally and in KZN, and there is the likelihood of further go-governance at local government level after the next elections. But residents say they would not support such an arrangement at local level.
Another resident, Khayalethu Nolokwe, said: “We don’t mind the GNU nationally but we would not want the ANC to work with the DA in the province. I would love to see the ANC taking over Western Cape again just like after the 1994 election,” he said.
“With the past couple of years being governed by the DA, people can see that there’s nothing much the DA has done for them, hence we need the ANC back in power.”
Nolokwe said he has full confidence in the ANC to also create job opportunities in the province once they are in power.
The dissatisfaction with the DA governance in Western Cape townships is something the ANC will attempt to exploit to rebuild its support in the province.
This was among the reasons for holding the January 8 event, at which president Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the party’s statement for the year ahead, in Khayelitsha.
In the Cape Town metro, the ANC’s support has over the years steadily declined. In the municipal elections in 2021, it secured just 18.6% of the vote, down from 24.36% in 2016.
ANC Western Cape provincial chairperson Vuyiso Tyhalisisu said the Western Cape has been governed by the DA for 20 years and that the gap between the rich and poor had worsened.
He said the ANC had many options to hold the January 8 statement elsewhere, but because of the party’s “analysis”, they thought it was time to “reconnect with their people”.
This was a sentiment expressed by many ANC leaders when asked why they would hold their gathering in such a small stadium. But Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis poured cold water on the reasons, saying on X:
“For the record, the ANC did not book the Khayelitsha stadium ‘out of concern’ for residents. They’re lying.
“They booked it because they were too incompetent to book any other venue in time. They only tried to book Cape Town Stadium in mid-November 2024! It was already booked for a Stormers’ game.
“Then they tried Athlone Stadium. It was also booked, for the Klopse Carnival. Several ANC office bearers called me asking for help in late November and even early December. They said we were trying to sabotage them by refusing the Stadium. In November! Lol!
The last conversation I had was 5 December, and by then they still hadn’t made a booking. So please don’t believe their nonsense.”
Tyhulisisu said holding the commemoration and the build up programme in the Western Cape had helped expose the conditions under which poor people were living.
He said the ANC has called on the SA Human Right Commission to see the conditions the poor are subjected to.
Tyhulisisu said the ANC would mobilise people around the issues at local government level between now and the elections.
“We want to energise the structures, energise the base so that we are ready for 2026. We think we are going to build on the work we have done now so that our people can come out and support the ANC.”
“In the informal settlements, 26 families share toilets, one stand pipe and we are saying we have not been happy and it’s time for our people to be mobilised to remove the DA from the coming elections,” he said.
Responding to allegations of township neglect in Cape Town, raised by Deputy President Paul Mashatile following his visit to Khayelitsha last week, DA federal chair Helen Zille wrote on X that it was time for the ANC to focus on fulfilling its responsibilities in the areas it governs, rather than spreading falsehoods about the DA.
Zille pointed out that security measures, including guards and CCTV cameras, have been installed at sewer pump stations in Khayelitsha to combat vandalism and theft, which frequently lead to sewer spills and service disruptions.
She questioned why communities would vandalise their own vital infrastructure.
“A R3.5mill LED public lighting refurbishment project is underway to improve safety and visibility in Khayelitsha. The City’s policing resources are vastly concentrated in low-income communities e.g. increased LEAP deployments for Khayelitsha and other areas,” Zille wrote.
“Cape Town has SA’s lowest unemployment rate with 300 000 jobs added since November 2021. The R39,5 bn infrastructure plan will create 130 000 construction jobs over the next three years,” she wrote.
Tyhulisisu said the DA has refused to work with the ANC in hung municipalities in the province where both parties could easily make over a 50% majority, saying they choose to work with smaller parties.
He said that last year, the ANC wrote to the DA asking to engage them in various governments of local unity, but it refused.
“We are not allergic to work with them to improve the quality of life for our people. That is why where necessary in council or legislature, we speak to them to bring services to our people not to oppose but also to advise them how to work in our communities.”
Tyhulisisu said he believed that the DA would be able to improve their performance in 2026 because of the experience of black and coloured voters in areas under DA control.
“We think we are going to do better and better, especially in the rural regions. In the 29 May elections, people did not go out and vote because of our own subjective weaknesses,” he said.
“The conduct of the DA in how it governs, it irritates the people. It mobilises and pushes them back to come back and vote. We think that our people will give us a chance to govern in local government next year,” he said.