South Africa’s ANC Faces Tough Municipal Vote Over Poor Services

IN a township in South Africa’s industrial heartland, raw sewage flows through the streets and into people’s homes.

Dilapidated infrastructure and poor services in areas that have traditionally been strongholds of the governing African National Congress (ANC) could hurt it in municipal elections on Monday.

The former liberation movement is hoping to win back metropolitan voters it lost to opposition-led coalitions in 2016, when it suffered its worst election outcome since sweeping to power under Nelson Mandela in 1994.

But analysts are predicting a continued slide in the ANC’s national support, possibly dipping below 50% for the first time from 54% five years ago.

“There is no respect for human dignity,” said Motsamai Matsabu, a pensioner in Evaton, a township of concrete and brick houses near major steel works south of the commercial hub Johannesburg, a pool of grey sewage festering in his yard.

“It makes me wonder whether our