Senior ANC NEC member Stella Ndabeni says the party is not “scared” of the DA’s bid to reclaim control of municipalities in Gauteng, including the City of Johannesburg, ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
Ndabeni, who chairs the ANC’s local government interventions team, said the party remained confident in its support base and its ability to retain control of municipalities.
She made the comments during a media briefing on Wednesday to reflect on the review of the ANC’s 2021 Local Government Elections Manifesto and outline preparations for the 2026 elections.
Her remarks come as the ANC, which has long faced criticism over poor governance and administration, is under pressure to improve its performance in the local government elections.
The party has yet to announce its mayoral candidates, while several of its rivals have largely finalised their slates.
“We are not scared. We are not scared because the ANC government was here earlier. The seat of Johannesburg was led by (Herman) Mashaba. When they took over from comrade Parks Tau, this municipality had huge results,” Ndabeni said.
“It only got messed up and went down after they took over, when they were working with the EFF.”
The party had governed the economic hub since 1994, but lost its council majority, paving the way for then-DA member Herman Mashaba to become mayor with opposition support.
It was the first time the ANC had lost control of Johannesburg since the end of apartheid, although it remained the largest party in council.
Ndabeni said the ANC had made a concerted effort to review its performance and identify ways to intervene in struggling municipalities.
“We’re not saying we are not facing challenges. We’re not saying we’ve not failed in certain areas. This is why we give account. That’s why we acknowledge that when we have not acted decisively, we have compromised everything, including the engagement that we have done,” she said.
Ndabeni said the review had highlighted the need for “timely and decisive interventions”, arguing that interventions introduced too late were often unable to reverse a municipality’s decline.
“This is why we said the interventions that we are empowered to utilise through the law are not the destination, because what we are committing to do is to build capable municipalities,” she said.
She acknowledged that the ANC had learnt from past mistakes and that mechanisms for accountability could be strengthened, although putting those mechanisms in place did not necessarily guarantee that they would be applied effectively.
“The ANC has been the only party, by the way, that has tried to be transparent and take responsibility for all the failures, but also recognised why the representatives are accountable,” she said.
Ndabeni said the party’s weakness had been a failure to act “timely and decisively”.
“If you look at the three components or the three legs that affect service delivery, if you are not ensuring that there’s focused stability, it is bound to have an impact on service delivery,” she said.
“Because once there is infighting, whether it’s because of different parties or within the same party, then it tells you that there’s going to be poor attention in terms of the oversight that must be provided over the executives. And this is where we begin to see the weaknesses.”
She said the ANC was “not starting from scratch” in addressing governance failures.
“We have learned, we have seen. Therefore, in 2026, this is why we are saying in our own document that we are committed to improve. We’re not starting afresh on accountability. We are strengthening mechanisms because we have identified our weaknesses,” she said.
Ndabeni also argued that the ANC had inherited municipalities facing significant service delivery challenges.
“Unlike others, we took over in a situation whereby we had lots of people who did not have access to water or sanitation. We had to deal with those,” she said.
Image: File
She said implementing changes could take time, particularly where municipalities faced budgetary constraints.
“This is why we said there’s a need for a review of the funding policy for emergency managers. Now, all of these things are lessons because of the experience that we have,” she said.
DA hits back
The DA rejected Ndabeni’s claims, saying her own comments undermined the ANC’s argument.
“She acknowledges that Johannesburg improved after the ANC lost power in 2016. The DA is contesting this election to win Johannesburg and restore a stable, accountable government focused on basic services,” DA national spokesperson Jan de Villiers told IOL.
De Villiers said the ANC could not continue blaming a DA-led administration that left office years ago for Johannesburg’s current failures.
“The ANC has governed, supported or enabled the city’s administrations for most of the democratic era and must take responsibility for the deterioration residents see today,” he said.
He said the ANC’s failures in Johannesburg and Gauteng could not be dismissed as shortcomings in merely “certain areas”.
“Residents experience declining infrastructure, unreliable services and unstable government every day in every community. The clearest admission came from Ms Ndabeni herself: Johannesburg improved when the ANC lost power. That is the choice voters face again in this election,” he said.
Johannesburg expected to be the ANC’s most closely watched contest, with veteran politician Frank Chikane emerging as the frontrunner for the party’s mayoral candidacy.
The city’s incumbent mayor is ANC councillor Dada Morero.
If selected, Chikane would face a crowded field in Johannesburg, including DA candidate Helen Zille, ActionSA leader Mashaba, EFF candidate Tlaleng Mofokeng, Patriotic Alliance candidate Kenny Kunene, IFP candidate Mlungisi Mabaso, Rise Mzansi’s Lukhona Mnguni, Build One South Africa’s Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster, and others.
The Johannesburg mayoral contest is expected to be one of the most closely fought local government races in the country.
The city continues to face major challenges, including poor service delivery, crime, corruption, electricity and water outages, potholes, hijacked buildings, the growth of informal settlements, non-functioning traffic and street lights, water losses and poor sanitation.
Analysts weigh in
Speaking to IOL News, political analyst Dr Bernard Sebake, dean of students at the Central University of Technology in the Free State, said political parties needed to project confidence as they approached elections.
“Any political party that approaches elections has to demonstrate boldness, and that boldness is in line with bolstering public confidence about their anticipated victory,” Sebake said.
He said Ndabeni’s comments were intended to communicate that the ANC still believed it had a role to play in Johannesburg and Gauteng despite its declining electoral support.
“So, this then says, regardless of the electoral shift of the ANC that has been identified over a number of years and the fact that also major municipalities that are in towns and cities, metros, in Gauteng are not necessarily in full control of the ANC,” he said.
He said the ANC was aware that the DA remained its biggest rival for electoral support.
“But we believe then indeed that the people of South Africa still have faith and trust in our leadership to ensure that we continue to fight back the bondages of service delivery,” Sebake said.
On the ANC’s continued criticism of the previous DA-led administration, Sebake said service delivery challenges were constantly shifting and could not always be attributed to a single administration.
“One administration can come in and be very good in one area and demonstrate a poor show in another section of service delivery. So, these challenges overlap as well from one administration to the other,” he said.
Sebake said the DA administration under Mashaba had attempted to address the needs of township residents and broaden the party’s traditional political appeal.
Image: File
However, he said the ANC also needed to demonstrate what it had done during its periods in office to address problems in the city.
“What I would have done was, in relating the challenges that may have been caused by another administration, which in this context was under the DA, the facts that were missing in illustrating that was what it is that during the tenure of the ANC administration they have done to push back in order to quantify,” he said.
“Otherwise, in an understanding of these words from a layman, an understanding would be that it is a political statement that is aimed at pushing back, or pushing the ballpost.”
Sebake said the comments reflected the intensity of the political contest in Johannesburg, with parties seeking to position themselves while avoiding full responsibility for their contribution to service delivery failures.
On whether the ANC’s delay in announcing its mayoral candidate could affect its electoral performance, Sebake said the candidate was only one part of a party’s campaign machinery.
“No, because beyond the mayoral candidate, there are structures of a political party in the area that must be able to go and interface with ordinary citizens,” he said.
He said voters in Johannesburg were increasingly basing their decisions on their lived experience of governance rather than the historical credentials of political parties.
“Citizens are more mature now to rely on what is called a history of credentials and lived experience of governance. They are looking as to where they will be able to position their lives on a pedestal of improvement,” he said.
Sebake said appeals based solely on the politics of the liberation struggle were becoming less influential among younger voters.
“Those who came, even those who were not there, who were there during the struggle, have now changed because the struggles cannot be overemphasised without the improvement of the quality of municipalities that we have in South Africa,” he said.
Political analyst Prof Theo Neethling, a research fellow in the Department of Political Studies and Governance at the University of the Free State, said Ndabeni’s remarks should be viewed not simply as an attack on the DA’s past performance, but as part of a deliberate ANC electoral counter-narrative for Johannesburg.
“Her remarks are especially significant because they came from Ndabeni in her capacity as chairperson of the ANC’s local government intervention task team, during the ANC’s manifesto review process. The ANC is explicitly reviewing its record ahead of the 4 November 2026 local election,” Neethling told IOL.
“In other words, I would understand Ndabeni’s remarks as a component of a wider ANC electoral approach aimed at countering the dominant narrative regarding Johannesburg’s deterioration.”
He said the ANC appeared to be attempting to prevent the election from becoming a straightforward referendum on its record by shifting some accountability towards the period of the DA-led coalition government that began in 2016.
Neethling said Ndabeni was also seeking to weaken the DA’s claim that it represented a clearly better alternative by arguing that Johannesburg had been in a relatively stronger financial position when the ANC last led the city and that its decline began after the DA took control.
“The timing is especially important considering Zille’s candidacy for mayor, potentially transforming the Johannesburg race into a prominent ANC-DA showdown,” he said.
At the same time, Neethling said Ndabeni’s remarks should not be interpreted solely as an attempt to absolve the ANC of responsibility.
“Her recognition that the ANC has erred and gained insights conveys a more nuanced political message: the ANC acknowledges it has lessons to absorb, yet contends that the DA cannot position itself as the definitive answer to Johannesburg’s issues,” he said.
Neethling said the ANC appeared to be trying to reshape the electoral narrative from one centred on “ANC shortcomings versus DA ability” to one focused on the ANC’s experience and lessons learned versus a disputed DA record and the uncertainty of coalition governance.
“Ndabeni’s involvement can thus be viewed as an initial part of the ANC’s wider effort to diminish the DA’s legitimacy, especially that of Zille, as the main contender in Johannesburg,” he said.
“Whatever has been said or will be said, the electorate won’t ignore the current water and electricity troubles in the city,” Neethling added.
