Put the African National Congress (ANC)’s and Democratic Alliance (DA)’s 2026 local government manifestos side by side, and the resemblance can be unsettling.
The parties still come from very different political traditions. The ANC describes itself as a movement of transformation. The DA presents itself as the party of markets, merit, and clean administration. Yet on some of the biggest questions facing municipalities, they now speak almost the same language.
The DA promises “stable, professional municipalities” staffed by “competent people based on merit.” The ANC promises “capable, stable, and professional municipal administrations” with appointments based on “merit, qualifications, competence, experience, and integrity.”
Both want a “culture of performance.” Both want measurable results. Both want municipalities to become more attractive to investors.
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Then there is the number eight.
The DA says municipalities should spend at least 8% of the value of their assets on repairs and maintenance. The ANC promises to invest “at least 8% of the value of municipal assets” in maintenance and renewal.
That looks less like ideological convergence than two parties drawing from the same policy environment. The 8% benchmark comes from National Treasury. So does much of the new language around performance-linked funding, financial sustainability, infrastructure maintenance, and measurable outcomes.
The Metro Trading Services Reform, led by Treasury and backed by a $925 million World Bank loan, explicitly links funding to “implementation, accountability, and results.” It is designed to improve municipal governance, financial sustainability, and operational performance.
Both manifestos absorb that grammar.
The resemblance becomes harder to dismiss when the parties talk about business.
The DA wants “investment-ready” municipalities, one-stop services for investors, less red tape, and more private capital. The ANC also promises “investment-ready municipalities,” faster planning approvals, and a “single point of contact for investors and entrepreneurs.”
The ANC says municipalities must “create conditions for investment, business growth, and job creation.” The DA says they should become “engines of growth.”
There is no evidence that the same people wrote the two documents. But it is worth asking whether the same policy establishment increasingly influences the assumptions behind both.
That question matters far more for the ANC.
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The DA has travelled exactly where one would expect it to go. It wants merit-based appointments, private investment, professional management, cost discipline, and a municipality that sees economic growth as one of its principal tests.
The ANC has travelled further from home.
Its earlier idea of local government was tied to popular power and transformation. Municipalities were supposed to change apartheid geography, expand public provision, redistribute resources, and give communities a direct role in development.
That tradition still survives in the 2026 manifesto. The ANC speaks about township and rural economies, cooperatives, indigent households, and public employment. It also draws a line around private involvement. “Partnerships can add capacity, but they cannot replace it,” the manifesto says. Government “must retain the capacity and responsibility” to deliver essential services.
The DA is more comfortable going further. Where municipalities lack resources, it proposes public-private partnerships under which private companies can “design, finance, build, and maintain infrastructure.” It also wants external providers brought in where councils cannot deliver.
Those are real ideological differences.
But they increasingly sit inside a common managerial framework.
The DA says it will “get your municipality working.” The ANC promises “a municipality that works for all.”
The DA wants to restore “performance, accountability, and service.” The ANC wants “clear plans, disciplined implementation, consequence management, and performance scorecards.”
Even their descriptions of economic development converge. The ANC says an “enabling municipality” should make land available, process licences quickly, and attract investment. The DA says municipalities should cut red tape, release land, and become “globally competitive destinations for business and job creation.”
The ANC’s dilemma sits there.
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Competence is not DA ideology. Hiring engineers is not neoliberalism. Fixing pipes does not betray the Freedom Charter. The ideological compromise begins when the definition of a successful municipality changes.
A movement that once measured local government through transformation increasingly measures it through financial sustainability, investor readiness, professional administration, and measurable performance.
Those goals may be necessary after years of municipal decline. They may also show how far the centre of South African policy has shifted.
The convergence is especially striking because the ANC now governs nationally with the DA in the Government of National Unity. The parties still fight fiercely over race, redistribution, ownership, and cadre deployment. But on the machinery of government, the distance between them is shrinking.
That leaves an awkward question hanging over the ANC manifesto.
If the ANC and DA increasingly agree on how a municipality should be managed, where exactly does the ANC’s revolutionary project begin?
That is a political convergence worth examining before voters enter the booths.
Different people may have written these manifestos.
On some pages, they may as well have been the same person.
- Both the ANC and DA 2026 local government manifestos emphasize stable, professional municipalities with merit-based appointments and a culture of measurable performance and results.
- Both parties commit to municipalities investing at least 8% of the value of their assets in repairs and maintenance, a benchmark derived from the National Treasury.
- The ANC and DA manifestos promote “investment-ready” municipalities with streamlined services and aim to create favorable conditions for investment, business growth, and job creation.
- The ANC maintains a focus on township and rural economies and insists government must retain capacity to deliver services, while the DA favors public-private partnerships and external providers to manage infrastructure and service delivery.
- Despite ideological differences on economic and social goals, the ANC and DA manifestos converge on managerial frameworks stressing financial sustainability, professional administration, and accountability in municipal governance.
