South Africans vote in ruling ANC's toughest local polls yet

A boy walks past makeshift toilets erected beneath electricity pylons, ahead of local government elections in Evaton, south of Johannesburg, South Africa, October 27, 2021. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africans started voting on Monday in municipal elections, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) facing discontent over poor services and stark inequality 27 years after ending white minority rule.

The ANC's rise to power in 1994 drew a line under centuries of racist oppression of the country's majority Blacks by the descendents of white settlers. But critics say the liberators have proved less effective at more mundane tasks like fixing drains, supplying clean water and keeping the lights on.