ANC in KZN vows renewal after election setbacks - IOL

The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal said it will review election setbacks, municipal infighting and service-delivery complaints as it seeks to rebuild public confidence, after the 2026 Local Government Elections.

The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal said it would review election setbacks, municipal infighting and service-delivery complaints as it seeks to rebuild public confidence, after the 2026 Local Government Elections.

ANC provincial spokesperson Sifiso Sonjica said the party had noted areas where it performed poorly and would assess what went wrong, particularly in municipalities affected by internal divisions and service delivery challenges.

Sonjica said while the ANC had lost support in some areas, it had also recorded improvements compared with the 2024 elections, with voting margins between parties remaining relatively close in certain areas.

He said the party respected voter's decisions to support alternative political parties if they believed the ANC was not delivering.

“We know that if we are not performing, people can vote for a different party to see whether they will perform. But if you look at the results properly, there is an improvement from us compared with what 2024 produced and what we are seeing now,” Sonjica said.

He acknowledged that internal conflicts within the ANC had affected service delivery in some municipalities, leaving communities frustrated with the party.

Sonjica cited internal divisions in Mpandle municipality as one of the issues the party needed to address, saying communities had been affected by infighting among ANC members deployed in municipalities.

In the municipality workers had gone without pay for multiple months from 2025 to 2026 leading to severe financial hardship, repossessed vehicles, lost homes, and public protests where staff blocked local roads at some point.

He said the party's renewal programme would focus on ensuring that people deployed to positions of responsibility were capable and committed to serving communities rather than pursuing personal interests.

“Part of renewal is that we deploy people who are committed, totally committed to working for communities, who are not working for themselves,” he said.

He said the ANC would also investigate its performance in municipalities where it had expected better results, adding that it was too early to draw conclusions before studying the election outcome.

Sonjica said the party planned to embark on a series of programmes aimed at engaging communities and explaining its policies while addressing concerns raised by residents.

He maintained that the ANC's policies were not necessarily the problem, but acknowledged that the party had sometimes deployed people who lacked the necessary capabilities to serve communities effectively.

Responding to concerns about whether the ANC was conceding that it had failed to govern effectively in parts of the province, Sonjica acknowledged that communities had raised legitimate concerns about infrastructure and water provision.

He argued that some of these challenges required both capable leadership and a review of how municipalities were funded.

Sonjica also expressed concern about the number of eligible voters who did not participate in the elections, saying the party needed to understand why many people had chosen not to vote.