The ANC is heading into the 2026 local elections divided, declining in the polls and fighting battles within its own ranks. Is South Africa’s former dominant party starting to come apart at the seams?
Join Nicholas Woode-Smith, Dr Martin van Staden and Zakhele Mthembu on the Rational Standard Podcast as they unpack the ANC’s chaotic start to the 2026 local election campaign, the decline of the party, the breakdown of the Tripartite Alliance and the increasingly bitter struggle for political power inside the ANC.
The ANC entered the campaign promising renewal and competent local government. Instead, its much-publicised mayoral candidate announcement produced 42 possible candidates for just eight metros, while final decisions were delayed amid concerns about factionalism, defections and disgruntled candidates.
At the same time, the SACP is contesting elections independently for the first time since 1994, raising serious questions about whether the historic Tripartite Alliance is finally breaking apart.
We also examine the darker side of ANC factional politics: allegations of manipulated candidate lists, battles over municipal positions and South Africa’s disturbing history of political assassinations, including ANC-on-ANC violence surrounding access to political office and state resources.
Is the ANC simply suffering the normal problems of a declining political party, or are we witnessing the breakdown of the political machine that has dominated South Africa for more than three decades?