Coalition looms in eThekwini Municipality
The battle for eThekwini has produced a new political pecking order, with the MKP leading, the DA following and the ANC in third place.
A coalition is on the cards in eThekwini after no party achieved an outright majority in the 2026 Local Government Elections held last week.
This comes after the election results were announced last night at the Electoral Commission’s Provincial Results Operation Centre, at the Durban International Convention Centre.
In the City, the results of the leading parties in Seats and Shares were as follows:
- MKP: 80 Council Seats, 38.6%
- DA: 57 Council Seats, 25.6%
- ANC: 37 Council Seats, 16.6%
- IFP: 15 Council Seats, 6.7%
- Action SA: 7 Council Seats, 3.1%
- EFF: 2 Council Seats, 1.8%
- FF: 4 Council Seats, 0.9%
- SACP: 1 Council Seat, 0.4%
- Smaller Parties: 12 Parties, 14 Seats. These comprise of the ATM, Ethekwini Ratepayers Political Movement, African Independent Congress, Democrat Liberal Movement, Minority Front, Patriotic Alliance, People’s Freedom Party, People’s Revolutionary Movement, Independent People’s Party, Al Jama-ah and 1860 NIC Congress.
According to Researcher Dr Noluthando Phungula from UKZN, the main influencing factor for voters this time was the need for change.
“Local government as the sphere closest to the people is mandated with service delivery, improved quality of life and development. Over the years the lived experiences of people has been quite the opposite, infrastructure decay, empty taps, potholes and failing billing systems. On the ground these realities have dire consequences for communities.
“This speaks to a change from blind party loyalty to prioritising the critical need of service delivery. This is why more and more South Africans are giving other new parties a chance to govern better and ultimately deliver services to the people,” she said.
Phungula said that a coalition could be seen in the near future.
“Well, in the next couple of weeks, parties will be consumed in coalition arrangement discussions.
“At the end, what matters most to constituents is that municipalities are run in a way that enables them to deliver their core mandate which is service delivery,” she said.
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Phathisizwe Chiliza of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party called for peace to prevail throughout the country, post elections.
“We are saying let there be peace. If there is peace in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, the whole of South Africa there will be peace,” he said.
Chiliza said that it was important for their members to listen to people and ensure that they received the necessary services.
“You cannot have people, after 33 years that have no water, no electricity, no proper road, and even some of the schools are in a mess. So, we are encouraging those new councillors from the MKP Party especially to respect people and ensure that they are getting development, there is peace, and stop squabbles because what makes other political parties fail is that people think for themselves.
“We do not expect people to enrich themselves and their families. What is important is to respect people and ensure that there is service delivery,” said Chiliza.
On Saturday, the MKP indicated that it was ready to hold coalition talks with black-led political parties and announced the party members who would be tasked with this.
Sthembiso Ngema, leader of the DA in KZN, relayed the party’s appreciation to the people of KZN for their votes, particularly in eThekwini and uMngeni.
He gave the voters an assurance.
“We just want to give you assurance that in any municipality, where we will be part of the government, we will enforce service delivery.
“We will deal with the issue of water as we were dealing with it sitting on the opposition benches. Now, we might find ourselves having an extended arm, being part of the government, being part of the municipality, being part of the decision making bodies, to ensure that those services are delivered to the municipalities,” he said.
Provincial chairperson of ActionSA Zwakele Mncwango welcomed the results.
“We are happy with the results. We have shown massive growth in the province. We are very happy.
“What we have proven today is that polling was always used as a propaganda machine for the DA, and those who were behind that propaganda tried to portray ActionSA as a party below 1% and they have been saying that, but we are happy that, eThekwini for example, we have proven that we can go beyond 3.1% with seven seats, from four seats. What is coming out today is that actually ActionSA was able to grow from previous years. Everyone else has dropped, so meaning only ActionSA and MK was able to see positive growth in these elections. So, we are very happy as ActionSA,” he said.
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Meanwhile, the outcome of the top five performing parties nationally, as declared by the IEC are as follows:
-ANC: 30.76% Votes, 3246 Council seats.
-DA: 24.64% Votes, 1695 Council seats.
-uMkhonto weSizwe Party: 9.76%, 786 Council seats.
-EFF: 6.22% Votes, 588 Council seats.
-ActionSA: 5.67% Votes, 313 Council seats
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