It’s been six months since the 2016 local government elections and it is worth asking: how is the ANC faring in opposition? The answer: not very well at all. Last August, the ANC lost three big metros to coalition governments: Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay. Along with Cape Town — first won by the DA in 2006 — these four municipalities are now flag bearers for DA-led administrations. If the ANC is to win them back, it needs to learn how to behave and operate like an effective, modern opposition party. For a revolutionary movement, that is a tough ask. And its performance in Cape Town, over the past decade, suggests it’s a code the ANC has yet to crack.Cape Town makes the case. The DA has now been in control of the metro for more than a decade. That is a fact rarely articulated but the DA’s dominance over the ANC in Cape Town borders on absolute. Over the course of the three local government elections since 2016, the numbers are devastating for the ANC. Back in 2006, th...
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