Ramaphosa votes in Hyde Park, where the DA took 97%
The president cast his ballot in the Johannesburg ward he lives in, not in Soweto where he grew up, under IEC rules that require voters to vote where they are registered.
President Cyril Ramaphosa voted in Hyde Park on Wednesday, casting his ballot in the Johannesburg suburb where he lives rather than in Soweto, where he grew up and usually voted.
As the Sowetan reported on 4 November, the president voted in Ward 90, which takes in Hyde Park, Parkmore, Illovo, Sandhurst and several other northern suburbs. Electoral Commission rules require people to vote at the station where they are registered, which in a local election means the ward in which they live. Former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe also live in the area.
The ward is not friendly ground for the governing ANC. The DA won a recent special election there with 97% of the vote, up from 64% the last time the seat was contested. The president therefore cast his ballot in a ward where his party has little support.
Ramaphosa said the registration rule had left him a choice between the two places he calls home. “There is always a tussle on where I should vote either in Hyde Park or in Soweto where I grew up and buried my parents,” he said shortly after voting.
Before the poll he urged registered voters to take part, saying their votes could help build better communities and strengthen local government. He pointed to the services municipalities provide, including water, sanitation and electricity. Complaints about those services, along with disputed billing, have dominated local politics in Johannesburg and other big cities.
Parties held their final rallies over the weekend, appealing to loyal supporters and undecided voters. The ANC held a rally in the Eastern Cape on Sunday. It faces the DA, the EFF and the MK Party, led by former president Jacob Zuma.
The ANC has been losing ground for a decade. In the 2021 local elections it fell below 50% nationally for the first time since the end of apartheid. In the 2024 general election it lost its parliamentary majority and entered a government of national unity that includes the DA. Several large metros, Johannesburg among them, have been run by coalitions for years, and those arrangements have often been unstable.
Wednesday’s vote is the first nationwide test of voter sentiment since that 2024 result. A weak showing for the ANC in the major metros would add pressure on the party as it manages the national coalition. A stronger result would ease some of that pressure.
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