Politics of the Northern Cape

The politics of the Northern Cape is dominated by the African National Congress (ANC), but their position has not been as strong as in many other provinces of South Africa.

In the election of 1994, no party achieved an absolute majority in the province, with the ANC having a plurality of 49% of the votes and 15 out of 30 seats. The National Party (NP) had 40% of the votes and 12 seats, the Freedom Front (FF) 2 seats and the Democratic Party (DP) 1 seat. ANC's Manne Dipico became the first Premier of the Northern Cape after Ethne Papenfus, the sole elected representative of the DP, voted with the ANC. In return, she was elected speaker of the legislature. The first term was characterized by co-operation and good relations between all 4 parties.

With the decline of the NP, the ANC increased its voter share in later elections and has remained firmly in charge of the province. Dipuo Peters replaced Dipico as Premier in 2004. The official opposition in the Northern Cape after the 2004 elections was the Democratic Alliance (DA), successor to the DP, which received 11% of the vote in the provincial ballot. The opposition's hopes of unseating the ANC has not had any success, even with the Congress of the People (COPE), a splinter party from the ANC, helping to split the vote in the election of 22 April 2009. Hazel Jenkins became Premier following the election, and COPE became the official opposition.

The 2014 election saw the ANC returned to power once again with an increased mandate, while DA once again became official opposition, following the collapse of COPE.

The ANC enjoys the greatest support in the densely populated and Tswana dominated northern districts, but has faced stronger challenges in the more thinly populated Afrikaans speaking Karoo areas adjoining the DA dominated Western Cape. They currently govern 24 of the 26 local municipalities in the Northern Cape.