Following a strong by-election win in Soweto, the ANC's Gauteng task team says work is being done to reposition the organisation ahead of the 2026 local government elections.

Following a strong by-election win in Soweto, the ANC's Gauteng task team says work is being done to reposition the organisation ahead of the 2026 local government elections.

Nearly three months after the 68-member Gauteng Provincial Task Team (PTT) was appointed to rebuild the ANC's structures in the province, halt its electoral decline and improve its image, the team believes it is starting to make progress.

When the structure took over, the party had suffered major electoral losses in South Africa's economic hub, with its share of the vote in Gauteng dropping from 50.02% in 2019 to 34.8% in 2024.

The decline was attributed to a number of factors, including the collapse of branches. The party's secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, said one of the immediate tasks was to conduct an audit and rebuild the party's structures, after which it could hold elective conferences.

Addressing journalists on Thursday, the Gauteng PTT coordinator, Hope Papo, said the team hit the ground running, with 80% of the branches now in good standing.

"As things stand, many of the branches in our province are administratively in good standing; we no longer have a situation where a branch has less than 100 members. We are...