OPINION| 6 ways to separate 2026 serious contenders from opportunists

South Africa heads to the 4 November local government elections with the highest record number of political parties on the ballot. Voters need a sharper test than loyalty or novelty.

By Dr Tendai Shephard Mbanje

On 4 November, South Africans will vote in local government elections. According to the Electoral Commission (IEC), 546 political parties will contest this year’s municipal polls, up from 325 in 2021, with more than 137,000 candidates vying for just over 10,500 council seats.

Supporters of this development call it a sign of a maturing democracy. It is partly that. But a crowded and busy ballot paper is also a symptom: of a collapse of trust in the established parties, of politics treated as a career rather than a calling, and of a council system in which a single seat can unlock a mayoral chain and the tenders that come with it. Understanding why there are so many parties is the first step towards choosing wisely among them.

A trust deficit meets a constitutional right

The landscape that produced this ballot shifted well before campaigning began. In 2021, turnout in local elections fell to a record low of about 46%, and more than 60 councils were left hung. In the 2024 national election, the ANC’s support fell to about 40%, ending three decades of outright majority rule and giving way to the Government of National Unity. Fifty-two parties appeared on that national ballot and 18 now sit in Parliament. The message from voters was clear: the old order no longer commands automatic loyalty.

Into that space have stepped hundreds of new formations, and they are entitled to. Section 19 of the Constitution guarantees every citizen the freedom to make political choices, including the right to form a political party, to participate in its activities and recruit members, and to campaign for a party or cause. It also guarantees every adult citizen the right to vote and to stand for public office. These are hard-won rights, and nobody should take them away.

But a right to form a party says nothing about the reasons for forming one. Here the picture is less flattering.

Politics as a career, councils as a payday

For too many, politics has become a job rather than a vocation of public service. A council seat brings a salary, allowances and status that are out of reach for many in a country where unemployment sits above 30%. A party of one’s own is a way to secure that seat when a place on an established party’s list is not on offer. Many new parties are built around an individual, or a faction that lost an internal battle, rather than around a distinctive set of ideas.

The rewards do not stop at salaries. Municipalities control sizeable procurement budgets, and the Auditor-General has warned year after year that weak controls and irregular expenditure leave the door open to abuse. In a hung council, the price of a party’s support can include committee chairs, mayoral committee seats and influence over who wins contracts. Johannesburg offered a stark illustration in 2023, when Kabelo Gwamanda of Al Jama-ah, a party that won about 1% of the city’s vote, was elected executive mayor of the country’s economic hub as part of a coalition deal.

What is often missing is ideology, a national vision and a sense of patriotism. Voters struggle to tell one new party from another because many offer little more than a slogan, a face and a grievance. A party that cannot explain what it stands for beyond “we are not them” will find it hard to govern once in office.

More parties is not more democracy

Some politicians argue that the proliferation of parties is the epitome of democratic consolidation. The argument is attractive but misleading. Democracies consolidate when institutions are accountable, when power changes hands peacefully and when parties offer coherent programmes that voters can reward or punish. None of these is measured by the length of a ballot paper.

In practice, fragmentation has produced the opposite of stability. Since 2021, coalition councils in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay have churned through mayors, budgets have been delayed and services have suffered while councillors bargained over posts. The problem is serious enough that Parliament is now considering the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill to regulate coalition government. Hundreds of parties competing for the same wards is more likely to deepen that instability than to cure it.

What voters should look for

If the ballot paper is long, the test should be sharp. Six questions can help voters separate serious contenders from opportunists.

Merit or patronage? Look at a party’s record on appointments where it has governed. Does it appoint qualified officials to run finances, water and electricity, or does it reward loyalists?

A delivery record, or a credible prospect of one? For established parties, judge the record: in June the Auditor-General found that only 39 of 257 municipalities achieved clean audits for 2024-25, and not one of the eight metros. For new parties, ask whether they have the people and the plans to do better, not merely the anger.

Are the promises pragmatic? Municipalities cannot run national jobs programmes, control immigration or set the fuel price. Promises that fall outside a council’s powers, or that come with no costing, are a warning sign.

Honesty or corruption? Look closely at who is on the candidate lists. Have candidates been implicated in tender irregularities, faced disciplinary findings or been named before commissions of inquiry? A party’s choice of candidates says more about its integrity than its manifesto does.

What do the new players really offer? New parties can bring fresh energy, local knowledge and pressure on complacent incumbents. They can also bring inexperience, thin structures and leaders willing to trade their seats to the highest bidder. Ask whether a new party has a record of community work, and whether it will still exist in five years.

What will your vote actually produce? In a fragmented council, a vote for a party that wins one or two seats may turn it into a kingmaker. Before voting, ask every party whom it will and will not govern with, and on what terms.

What will decide the vote?

The record number of political parties on the 4 November ballot reflects real frustration, and the constitutional freedom to act on it. But choice is only valuable when it is informed. If voters reward personalities, slogans and grievance, the likely result is more hung councils, more coalition bargaining and less delivery. If they reward merit, honesty, credible plans and clarity about coalitions, the crowded ballot can become an instrument of accountability.

The responsible choice is neither to stay at home in disgust nor to vote for whoever shouts loudest. It is to ask harder questions of every party, old and new, and to vote for the one that answers them.

Dr Tendai Shephard Mbanje is a human rights, governance and elections expert. He writes in his personal capacity.