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.
Electoral Commission (IEC) rules require people to vote at the station where they are registered. In local elections, that means the ward in which they live. Ramaphosa lives in Ward 90, which includes Hyde Park, Parkmore, Illovo, Sandhurst and several other suburbs. 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 voted in a ward where his party has little support.
President Ramaphosa has voted Hyde Park this morning where he resides https://t.co/64EBKSB4kZ
— Thando Maeko (@HelloThando) November 4, 2026
“The change in the IEC rules where they said you must vote where you live … so I did abide by those rules … 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 following the vote.
Before the poll, Ramaphosa urged registered voters to take part. He said 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 a national-level coalition. A stronger result would ease some of that pressure.
Business Day
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