No party won more than half the seats in 127 of South Africa's 213 municipal councils, and the ANC kept outright control of 53 councils, down from 122 after the 2021 elections.
Claimed by: Electoral Commission of South Africa
Everything reported so far traces back to one source. Unverified. We'll update this page as reporting comes in, then say whether it held up.
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Who's reporting it
- SAnews (South African Government News Agency), 2026-11-08: Of the 213 municipalities, 72 have a party with an outright majority and 127 are hung; the ANC controls 53 outright and leads in 128 more. source
- Electoral Commission of South Africa (via gov.za), 2026-11-08: In the declaration speech, no party obtained more than 50% of the seats in the remaining 127 municipalities, which are hung councils. source
- eNCA, 2026-11-08: The ANC won outright control of 53 municipalities, compared with 122 in 2021, while the DA holds majorities in 12. source
History
- 2026-11-10: Single source. Both figures trace to the commission's Nov 8 declaration. The 127 hung councils appear in SAnews and the chair's speech on gov.za; the speech text says the ANC controls 51 councils outright, while SAnews and eNCA say 53. The 2021 comparison of 122 comes from eNCA.