South Africa experienced the second-highest number of service delivery protests on record in 2025, with protest action occurring on two out of every three days.
The 229 service delivery protests in South Africa in 2025 come amid rising social frustration and an increasing lack of participation in elections and other democratic processes.
This poses a major threat to social stability in South Africa, particularly in relation to the looming local government elections, which are expected to take place before the end of 2026.
Standard Bank chief economist Goolam Ballim explained that one of the things the bank is keeping a close eye on is the rise in grievance politics as individuals lose trust in established political parties, particularly the ANC.
However, Ballim does not see this trend impacting the current Government of National Unity (GNU), as there are too many positive incentives for President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC, and the DA to remain part of the coalition government.
Rather, the most intense battles and flashpoints are likely to occur at the local level, as the collapse of municipalities and service delivery is most keenly felt there.
While much of the focus is on the political battles over who will run South Africa’s major metros and municipalities, Ballim raised concern about South Africans’ declining participation in the country’s democratic processes.
This has been coupled with a rise in service delivery protests, which are increasingly seen as a more effective way of driving positive change within local government and communities.
“People are not happy. Service delivery protests in the past year, in terms of large, formal, recorded protests, almost surpassed the high of 2018,” Ballim explained.
“Certainly, at 229, it was a substantial number of protests, and people are not protesting based on personal ideology or an aversion to a particular party – it is all about utility deliveries.”
Ballim explained that people are protesting due to administrative incapacity at the local level, particularly over water shortages, electricity outages, and a lack of basic services.
This has been exaggerated by the apparent rise in lawlessness and crime, rising inequality, elevated unemployment, and, generally, poor economic management.
South Africans feeling the pain
Surprisingly, despite simmering social frustration, things appear to be improving for South Africa at the national level.
Ballim said that in 2025, South Africa turned the corner and that the country was in a better position at the start of 2026 than it had been for any year over the past decade.
The government is making meaningful progress in implementing its reform programme, load-shedding appears to have ended, and the government’s financial health is improving.
This has been coupled with positive news regarding fixed investment in South Africa, which began to grow again towards the end of 2025.
Ballim described these as directional improvements, with a miracle unlikely to occur in 2026 or in 2027. However, these improvements place South Africa on the right path for faster economic growth.
While these improvements have helped boost the JSE, ease the government’s cost of borrowing, and show that South Africa is on the right track, the feeling on the street is still one of frustration, Ballim said.
This is because South Africans do not ‘feel’ policy or improvements at a national level, with failures from local government being significantly more impactful at a personal level.
“Local government determines macroeconomic outcomes to a significant extent, so it is critical. The functioning of local government is what touches society in a universal way,” Ballim said.
“Society does not really touch policy, national policy, even though it matters enormously. It is not something they feel as viscerally as local government.”
This explains why, at a high level, things appear to be getting better in South Africa, but at a local level, discontent remains high.
This is also what makes the looming local government elections so vital for South Africa, as they are likely to determine the performance of the economy and the satisfaction of citizens to a significant degree.
Ballim pointed to the decline in democratic participation as a concerning trend, indicating that South Africans do not believe electoral change can drive meaningful improvement in their lives.
As a result, they tend to turn to protest and disruption as means of driving change in their municipalities, as the government has proven more responsive to this.
“Over the last few election cycles, South Africans have become disenamoured with elections. Participation has plummeted to 46% of registered voters and 30% of eligible voters,” Ballim said.
He urged South Africans to take action to change this trend, with participation in elections being immensely important to driving positive change in real-world outcomes.
