On 1 November 2021, the electoral map of Ward 35 in the City of Matlosana, North West province, painted a picture of absolute, historic dominance.
The African National Congress (ANC) secured a resounding victory with 1,129 votes—a massive 70.5% of the 1,601 valid ballots cast.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) trailed far behind in second place with 22.5% (361 votes), while the Democratic Alliance (DA) lingered at a nominal 5.2% (84 votes).
Minor players like the ATM (1.0%) and the UDM (0.3%) were rendered virtually invisible. On paper, Ward 35 was an impenetrable fortress for the ruling party, effortlessly sending Councillor Kgosietsile Vincent Seitshero to the municipal council.
But elections are a lagging indicator of public sentiment. Beneath the 2021 numbers lay a ticking clock of civic frustration that is set to detonate in the 2026 Local Government Elections.
For decades, the residents of Ward 35 have watched their community erode under the weight of severe infrastructure decay and administrative paralysis. Unreliable water supplies, raw sewage overflow, cratered roads, and erratic refuse collection are no longer occasional inconveniences; they are the defining features of local governance here.
Decades of municipal mismanagement, unverified capacity gaps, and a toxic reliance on political loyalty over administrative competence have plunged the City of Matlosana into a permanent financial crisis, routinely flagged by damning audit failures from the Auditor-General.
When a local government struggles to interpret basic agendas or run standard operational procedures, it is the vulnerable citizens on the ground who pay the ultimate price.
Historically, the ANC relied on the deep well of its liberation-movement capital to survive these service delivery failures. Voters punished the party not by switching sides, but by staying home—evident in the fact that out of 3,932 registered voters on the roll in 2021, only 1,601 actually cast valid votes.
The 2026 electoral landscape, however, represents a fundamental paradigm shift.
The traditional “stay-at-home” protest is being replaced by an unprecedented fragmentation of the political landscape. The ANC is no longer just fighting an external opposition; it is fighting a civil war against its own ghost network of former leaders and breakaway factions.
The entry of highly targeted, local competitors in Ward 35 has shattered the old tri-partisan hegemony: The South African Communist Party (SACP): Standing independently through Masontaha Christina Hlalele, directly challenging its Tripartite Alliance partner from the left. The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP): Represented by Sbusiso Philani Mathenjwa, looking to replicate its devastating KwaZulu-Natal insurgence by eroding the ANC’s traditional liberation stronghold in the North West. ActionSA: Fielding Siphosihle Refilwe Makhubu, pulling disillusioned, middle-ground voters. Afrika Mayibuye: Spearheaded locally by Simamkele Mtshazi. The United Africans Transformation (UAT): Relying on Johannes Poloko Sekgweleo, a widely trusted local figure.
Crucially, the majority of these new candidates are former stalwarts and organizers from the ANC and DA.
They possess the inside knowledge, the local structures, and the personal community networks that impersonal party brands lack.
By putting forward credible, familiar faces like Sekgweleo, these emerging parties are successfully weaponising anti-ANC sentiment without requiring voters to cross ideological lines to traditional opposition parties.
Ward 35 is an explicit micro-cosm of South Africa’s broader political trajectory. The era where political loyalty could buy immunity from dry taps and uncollected waste is officially over.
As former liberation allies and local leaders splinter into new vehicles, the ANC’s 70.5% majority is under existential threat. The 2026 election in Matlosana will not be won on historical nostalgia; it will be decided by who can convincingly promise to fix the roads, turn on the taps, and restore basic human dignity to a community left in the dark for far too long.
