Seven of South Africa’s eight metros have no party with a council majority after the 2026 local government elections, IOL reported. Coalition talks will now decide who runs most of the country’s biggest cities.
The DA came first in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay. Cape Town was the only metro where a party won an outright majority of council seats.
The ANC led in Buffalo City with 41.9% and in Mangaung with 33.9%. In Mangaung, the DA was close behind on 33.5%. The MK Party came first in eThekwini.
Nationally, the ANC stayed the biggest party with 30.76% of the vote. The DA followed on 24.64%, the MK Party on 9.76%, the EFF on 6.22% and ActionSA on 5.67%.
About 14.9 million people voted, a turnout of 52%. That was 6.1 percentage points higher than the 45.9% turnout in 2021.
In Johannesburg, the DA won 34.8% of the vote, up from 26.1% in 2021. The ANC dropped from 33.6% to 20.3%. ActionSA came third with 16.3%.
The Johannesburg council has 270 seats, and a party or group needs 136 to govern. Early seat numbers gave the DA 91 seats and ActionSA 43. Together, that is still short of a majority.
The Sunday Times reported that ActionSA wanted the DA to rethink Helen Zille as its mayoral candidate. The report said Herman Mashaba was being put forward for the job. Mashaba publicly challenged the report and accused the newspaper of misleading readers.
ActionSA leader Michael Beaumont said the party was not ruling out a deal that included Zille. He said the party still had doubts about whether she was suited to the role.
Zille said she would prefer a two-party coalition with either ActionSA or the ANC. She said fewer partners would make a city government easier to manage. ActionSA said its first round of talks with the ANC was productive and respectful.
In Tshwane, the DA won 34.4% and ActionSA came second with 22.1%. In Ekurhuleni, the DA led with 30.7%. The DA took 44.2% in Nelson Mandela Bay.
In eThekwini, the MK Party won 86 of the 223 council seats. It needs 112 seats for a majority. The DA won 57 seats, the ANC 37, the IFP 15, ActionSA seven and the EFF four.
The ANC used to hold the biggest share of seats in the eThekwini council.
President Cyril Ramaphosa asked parties to handle coalition talks with maturity and humility. He said basic services should never be used as a bargaining tool.
“This is not a weakness of democracy. It is an expression of the choices that the people have made,” he said.
Results in KwaZulu-Natal could still change. Provincial electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga said the IEC was looking at objections that were sent in late.
“Don’t be surprised if there is a slight change in some of the results,” she said. Masinga said the seven-day period for the IEC to process the results ends on Wednesday, 11 November.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.