Update: count reaches 99%, hung councils rise to 136

This report updates Awaaz Punjab's earlier story, in which the count stood at 98% with the ANC on 30.95% and 122 of 213 councils hung. With 99% of voting districts now counted, the ANC stands at 30.8%, 8,455 of 8,825 council seats have been declared, and the hung-council total has risen to 136. Read the earlier 98%-counted report

South Africa's 2026 local government elections are effectively decided in all but a handful of districts, after counting reached 99.0 per cent of voting districts on Saturday night, according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) live results. With 29,621,026 valid votes counted across all ballots (yaani 2.96 crore votes), the African National Congress (ANC) leads nationally on 30.8 per cent, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) on 24.6 per cent, Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) on 9.7 per cent and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on 6.2 per cent.

Source: IEC live results via Rateweb, Nov 7 2026 (crawled 22:01 UTC) — 99.0% of voting districts counted

99.0%of voting districts counted — 8,455 of 8,825 council seats declared
30.8%ANC national share — 9,131,934 votes and 3,235 seats, down from 45.59% in 2021
136 of 213councils now hung, up from 122 at the 98% count — no party holds a majority in almost two-thirds of municipalities
24.6% / 9.7%DA second on 7,283,340 votes and 1,634 seats; MKP third on 2,869,656 votes and 752 seats

Only one metro has a majority

Of the eight metropolitan councils, only Cape Town has an outright majority, held by the DA with 133 seats. The other seven are hung or still completing their counts: in Johannesburg the DA leads with 92 seats with counting at 99 per cent; in Tshwane the DA holds 74 seats, 34 short of a majority; in Ekurhuleni the DA holds 66 seats, 47 short; in eThekwini the MKP leads with 87 seats with counting at 94 per cent; Nelson Mandela Bay is hung with the DA on 53; and the ANC leads two hung metros, Buffalo City on 42 seats and Mangaung on 35, the IEC figures showed.

Source: IEC live results via Rateweb, Nov 7 2026 — the eight metros and hung-council table

Provincially, the DA leads Gauteng on 33.9 per cent and holds the Western Cape on 54.0 per cent, the MKP leads KwaZulu-Natal on 34.5 per cent, and the ANC still leads five provinces, its strongest being Limpopo on 54.4 per cent, followed by Mpumalanga on 43.7 per cent, the Eastern Cape on 46.1 per cent, North West on 44.1 per cent and the Northern Cape on 41.6 per cent, according to the IEC results. Behind the top four nationally, ActionSA took 5.7 per cent and 275 seats and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) 4.7 per cent and 475 seats.

Source: IEC live results via Rateweb, Nov 7 2026 — results by province and full party table

'We knew this disaster was coming' — Mbalula

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, briefing media at the National Results Operations Centre in Midrand, said the party knew its election disaster was coming and had expected far worse in KwaZulu-Natal, The Citizen reported. The party's national share fell from 45.59 per cent in 2021 to 30.91 per cent this year on the ballot basis he cited, and in KwaZulu-Natal the MK party took around 34 per cent against the ANC's 20.5 per cent, down from 41.4 per cent in 2021. 'We are staring at it. The official polls of the ANC told us that we would be at 34%. We knew what we were up against,' Mbalula said, adding that the party had expected to be 'totally wiped out' in the province.

Source: The Citizen via Ghanamma, Nov 7 2026 — Mbalula: We thought we would be totally wiped out in KZN

Mbalula said the middle class had 'turned against the ANC', admitted local governments had failed voters, and said residents 'have every right to demand better'. 'We cannot ask people to trust us just merely because of our history. It gives us a responsibility to serve, not an entitlement to govern. The ANC must earn the confidence of the people through what it does today and what it delivers tomorrow,' he said. 'We will accept this lesson with humility.' He stressed that the ANC still leads the government of national unity and holds the presidency.

Source: The Citizen via Ghanamma, Nov 7 2026 — Mbalula briefing remarks

What is solid

  • At 99.0% of districts counted, the ANC is on 30.8%, the DA on 24.6%, the MKP on 9.7% and the EFF on 6.2%, with 136 of 213 councils hung — the IEC's live results, carried by Rateweb.
  • The ANC's fall from 45.59% in 2021 and its collapse to about a fifth of the vote in KwaZulu-Natal are stated by its own secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, in his results-centre briefing, reported by The Citizen.

What is only claimed

  • Party shares differ slightly by ballot basis: the combined ward-plus-PR table gives the ANC 30.8%, while Mbalula cited 30.91% — both are IEC-derived figures on different ballot combinations, not a contradiction in the count itself.
  • Seat totals and the hung-council count are still moving with the final districts; Johannesburg was at 99% counted and eThekwini at 94% in the IEC snapshot used here.
Coalitions, municipality by municipality

With 136 councils hung — including seven of the eight metros — South Africa now faces coalition negotiations in almost two-thirds of its municipalities at once. Mbalula said no formal talks have begun, the ANC's National Executive Committee will decide its approach council by council, and sitting in opposition is among its options: 'We are not in the business of begging for a mayoralty or any other position.'

What happens next: the IEC completes the remaining districts and certifies the final results — its official declaration was scheduled for Sunday evening, as Financial Mail reported earlier — after which parties move into formal coalition negotiations to form governments in the 136 hung councils, a process that will decide who runs Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and eThekwini, four of the country's biggest city economies.