Angry South Africans vote in local elections with the ANC tipped to win less than a third amid water outages

South Africa's local elections are under way today, with nearly 29 million registered voters heading to around 23,700 polling stations as the ANC faces its worst municipal result since the end of apartheid. Johannesburg — a city of around five million that has churned through five mayors in four years — is the key battleground, with residents citing filthy water, leaking sewage and rampant crime as the reasons they want change. President Cyril Ramaphosa insisted at Sunday's final rally that the ANC is "going higher and higher," but polls and analysts flatly contradict him.

Johannesburg has endured water shortages for over a week; last October, a gastrointestinal illness linked to contaminated water struck more than 800 people in east Tshwane.

Democratic Alliance candidate Helen Zille, 75, is gunning for the Johannesburg mayoralty, having staged publicity stunts including snorkelling in a road trench and paddling an inflatable boat across a flood caused by a water leak.

Former President Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe party is making its local-election debut, heaping further pressure on the ANC's already fractured coalition base.