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South African municipal elections set for November 4, president says

By Thomson Reuters Apr 30, 2026 | 6:28 AM

JOHANNESBURG, April 30 (Reuters) – 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.

(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov, Nilutpal Timsina and Anathi Madubela;Editing by ​Alexander Winning)