ANC loses control of key city council

South Africa’s African National Congress was voted out of power in Nelson Mandela Bay, leaving the ruling party control of only three of the nation’s eight biggest cities.

A group of opposition councilors succeeded in a no-confidence vote in ANC Mayor Eugene Johnson, and proposed a candidate from the Democratic Alliance, the country’s second-biggest political party, to manage the metropolitan municipality in the coastal Eastern Cape province.

The ANC, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, suffered its worst electoral performance in a local government vote last year, winning less than 50% support for the first time since coming to power in 1994. Opposition coalitions now manage most of South Africa’s key cities, including Johannesburg and the municipality that includes the capital, Pretoria.

Power has changed hands several times in Nelson Mandela Bay since the ANC first lost its outright majority in the city in 2016.