The African National Congress (ANC) had its worst election result in its history on Wednesday, winning less than a third of the vote,  with voters giving the party a strong rebuke.

With 55% of votes counted, the ANC had won 31.8% of the vote, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) snapping at its heels with 25.8%, according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa.

No other party was on more than 10% of the vote, with the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) on 8.2%. This will be a disappointing result for it, as it will have hoped to at least replicate its 2024 national election performance, when it won 15% of the national vote.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) was in fourth place with 5.9% of the counted vote.

Earlier today The Common Sense reported that the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research had projected that the ANC would finish with 31.7% of the vote and the DA 25.7%.

The result marks a further collapse in the ANC’s electoral dominance. Having lost its national majority in 2024, the party has now suffered another significant setback, suggesting that its decline is becoming increasingly entrenched. The ANC remains South Africa’s largest party, but its ability to command the support of voters across the country has been severely weakened.

The results are also a disappointment for the ANC’s more radical offshoots. Neither the MKP nor the EFF emerged as a major beneficiary of the governing party’s decline, suggesting that voters abandoning the ANC are not simply transferring their support to its populist offspring.

The consequence is a political landscape in which no party commands anything approaching majority support nationally. Coalition government is likely to become an increasingly permanent feature of South African politics, with the ANC facing the prospect of having to negotiate for power in municipalities it once governed without serious opposition.

For the ANC, the message is unmistakable: its historic liberation credentials are no longer sufficient to guarantee electoral success, and unless it can demonstrate that it is capable of delivering better government, its long electoral decline may have much further to run.