The ANC’s diminishing support in the Western Cape and past governance issues make it unlikely for the party to regain control from the DA, experts say.
The ANC might have tried to expose the DA’s failures in the Western Cape, but the party has no chance to oust it in the province.
In fact, the rot in the Cape townships started during the ANC administration, experts say.
Independent political analyst Goodenough Mashego said: “The ANC did expose the DA’s hypocrisy, but it didn’t show that it is any better. The degradation happened in the black townships when the ANC was in power,” Mashego said.
ANC exposed DA hypocrisy but didn’t show it is any better
Political economy analyst Daniel Silke said the ANC’s attempt to embarrass the DA wouldn’t make a difference because the Khayelitsha that the ANC complained about was its stronghold and it did well there in all elections.
“Khayelitsha is the only real heartland for the ANC in the Western Cape. It’s not that the ANC is going to win any further votes on this particular issue, probably the only issue that the ANC can run away with in the Western Cape,” Silke said.
“It’s really the issue of clutching at straws for the ANC,“ Silke said.
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The ANC’s votes have diminished over many years, he said.
By contrast, under the DA, the Western Cape and Cape Town administrations were generally good and better than most in South Africa.
Silke said the degradation at Khayelitsha that the ANC was complaining about was not unique, but a common feature in all townships, most of which were under the ANC.
ANC complaints not unique
Mashego said there was very little that the ANC had done in the Western Cape to change the situation and blacks were suffering.
“I don’t think what happened last week will count in their favour come the 2026 local elections,” Mashego said, referring to the ANC leadership claim that the DA failed to develop black areas in the Cape Town.
He said despite the DA’s corrosive attitude towards black people from the Eastern Cape, whom Helen Zille once claimed were foreign immigrants in the Western Cape, many black voters preferred the DA to the ANC.
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“The Western Cape will always be won or lost on the coloured vote,” said Mashego.
“The ANC was able to govern the Western Cape in the past primarily because of the coloured vote.”
He said only former president Thabo Mbeki understood the importance of concentrating ANC energies on organising coloured people and putting coloured leaders in the forefront of the party, rather than black leaders.
Importance of organising coloured people
He said the ANC was successful with leaders like Alan Boesak, Ebrahim Rasool and Marius Fransman, but its subsequent leaders made a mistake of trying to push black leaders to leadership, isolating coloured leaders.
“The ANC needs to go to the Cape Flats now that it is fighting for them and the government is fighting against the gang violence.
It must roll out social programmes with ANC councillors leading, otherwise with the black votes, I don’t think they will ever win there again,” Mashego said.
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