The ANC is collapsing

The ANC is facing serious challenges, including declining support, financial problems, and infighting, which threaten its performance in the 2026 elections.

ANC veteran and former Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa told the Unpopular Opinion podcast that the ANC needs a prayer.

He said that the ANC’s national support declined from 70% to 40%, and that this trend is continuing.

“According to our current polls, as well as other serious polling, support is now sitting between 26% and 36%. So, the ANC is stumbling,” he said.

“The party was forced into a government of national unity. It was forced into it. It was a necessary compromise and a common-sense compromise,” he said.

“We are facing a local government election, and the infighting I’m talking about is simply not coming to an end.”

Phosa’s polling data aligns with that of the Social Research Foundation, whose recent research said that the ANC sits at 34% nationally.

Economic and political expert Colin Coleman, in turn, predicted that the ANC’s support in the local government elections would fall from 46% in 2021 to 32% or 33% in 2026.

Declining support is not the ANC’s only problem. The party is in financial problems again, which has been a recurring problem.

Business Day reported that the ANC is facing a default judgment after allegedly failing to defend a high court claim.

Bidvest Services is seeking to recover R900,000 for unpaid cleaning, hygiene, and pest control services at Luthuli House.

The add insult to injury, the ANC faces another problem, the Phala Phala scandal, which has weakened its President, Cyril Ramaphosa.

“The Phala Phala issue is not a single domino that will cause the entire political system to collapse. However, it weakens the President’s authority and credibility,” Coleman said.

“He may have gained a short-term procedural delay through the courts, but it creates an overall leadership vacuum over an extended period.”

“The immediate issue facing us is the upcoming local government election and the shift it could cause in the political balance of the country and the GNU.”