Meet the power brokers in SA’s great coalition scramble

Daily Maverick · Ferial Haffajee · 2026-11-04 19:43 UTC

More than 100 municipalities could be governed by coalitions. These party leaders will probably decide who runs them.

With projections that South Africa could end up with 110 hung councils as results are finalised this week, attention will quickly turn to who will negotiate coalition agreements for the major parties.

Both the ANC and DA are reportedly centralising negotiations at head office rather than leaving it to provincial or regional structures to hammer out agreements.

At a central level, it is possible to negotiate across councils to trade for your positions and, more importantly, to embed your electoral values and promises in final coalition agreements.

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