{"id":49717,"date":"2026-11-02T10:47:27","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T08:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=49717"},"modified":"2026-11-02T10:47:27","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T08:47:27","slug":"sas-splintering-vote-sets-up-multi-party-battle-for-cities","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-splintering-vote-sets-up-multi-party-battle-for-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"SA\u2019s \u00a0splintering vote sets up multi-party battle for cities"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The first time Mpho Moroka voted, in 2008, she backed the African National Congress (ANC). Almost two decades on, \u200bthe unemployed 38-year-old from Soweto, Gauteng province has switched sides to the rival Democratic Alliance (DA) ahead of local elections.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div>&#8220;I&#8217;m from the township. I saw \u200cthe poverty, I saw the struggles and I saw that there is no change,&#8221; she told\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0at a DA campaign rally. &#8220;So I said no more ANC.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Moroka&#8217;s shift reflects a broader fragmentation of SA\u2019s electorate that has made outright majorities increasingly difficult to secure.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Polls suggest the historically dominant ANC will remain the biggest single party overall, but suffer a \u200bhaemorrhaging of support in the November 4 votes.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the absence of clear victories, the party and its rivals will have to sit down \u200bto the fraught task of negotiating coalitions to govern SA\u2019s major municipalities.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Their challenge, to get over their differences and form administrations \u2060stable enough to improve services, rebuild infrastructure and attract investment.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Louw Nel, senior political aAnalyst at Oxford Economics Africa, said polling suggested \u200bsupport for the ANC could fall to as low as 31% to 34%, around half the more than 60% it secured in the 2011 local elections.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But \u200bthe DA, the second-biggest party, was not capturing all of its deserters, Nel told\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2014Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29811,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-49717","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Moroka's shift reflects a broader fragmentation of SA\u2019s electorate that has made outright majorities increasingly difficult to secure.","published_date":"","news_description":"Moroka's shift reflects a broader fragmentation of SA\u2019s electorate that has made outright majorities increasingly difficult to secure.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49720,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49717\/revisions\/49720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}