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With a year to go before the local government elections, it seems the most affluent and best-serviced municipalities will be fought for tooth and nail.
According to figures drawn from the 2014 elections, the ANC is fast losing votes in municipalities like King Sabata Dalindyebo in the Eastern Cape, where it had garnered 57% of the votes last year. The town of Mthatha is part of the municipality.
Statistically, based on 2014 elections and census data, the ANC is battling to hold on to areas where people are young, educated and have services.
King Sabata Dalindyebo is predominantly a working class and middle class area, with a young population that earns on average R2 400 a month, but the ANC has been losing these voters steadily. The municipality was previously run by the United Democratic Movement (UDM).
If the trend persists, the ANC and the UDM may have to go neck and neck next year.
The governing party already has a slim majority in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, also in the Eastern Cape, and is in serious danger of losing it to a coalition of opposition parties.
But the most highly contested province will be Gauteng, where the ANC has already lost Midvaal to the DA.
The ANC was holding on by a thread in Tshwane, with 49%. It has also lost support significantly in the City of Johannesburg, where it was only able to obtain 52% of the votes last year
