Johannesburg’s recurring failures in electricity, water and waste services are intensifying pressure on the African National Congress-led city coalition before South Africa’s Nov. 4 municipal elections, where voters choose councillors who later select the mayor.
The Guardian reported that October polling put Democratic Alliance support between 29% and 36%, compared with 22% to 27% for the ANC. Analysts cited by the newspaper said the DA may not be able to gather enough partners to govern. A separate survey previously put the DA ahead of the ANC in Johannesburg.
At a Rabie Ridge meeting, about 400 residents confronted Mayor Dada Morero and City Power officials over service problems, The Guardian reported. One attendee said she had gone six months without electricity. Another attendee said her mother had turned to loan sharks after receiving electricity bills as high as 6,000 rand a month, compared with her 2,000-rand pension. In Alexandra, rubbish had built up along roads and the banks of the Jukskei River.
Mayor Dada Morero said the city’s infrastructure backlog exceeded 220 billion rand. In March 2025, Public Affairs Research Institute researchers Tracy Ledger and Jugal Mahabir estimated that leaks waste 25% of the water Johannesburg buys from Rand Water.
An October assessment by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime identified mismanagement, long-term underinvestment, population growth and apartheid-era urban divisions among the causes of the city’s decline. It also said criminal networks can profit from service failures and emergency procurement. Residents bear the effects of outages, waste problems and high bills, while the assessment pointed to procurement as a source of gains for criminal networks.
Morero told The Guardian that the city was providing services overall and focusing on areas without them. He attributed an outage affecting parts of the inner city to a collapsed substation, vandalism and criminal groups. President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged broader municipal failures in an Oct. 22 speech launching a revised White Paper on Local Government. South Africa’s municipal elections are scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 4.
