2026 election results: it’s Zille vs ‘someone’ for control of Joburg
Early vote counting from the 2026 local government elections shows the Democratic Alliance has a strong lead in the battleground metro of Johannesburg, with the ANC a distant second.
This puts DA candidate for the city, Helen Zille, as a top contender for the mayoral seat—with the ANC’s candidate still to be determined.
While the vote counting in Joburg is still early, with only around 15% of the votes tallied, polling and projections indicate a thrashing for the ANC, calling its election strategy into question.
The early count puts the DA at 41% of the vote, with the ANC trailing behind at 17%. ActionSA is at 15%, followed by smaller parties.
Polls ahead of the election put the DA at around 35%, the ANC at around 25%, and ActionSA at 10%.
The CSIR, which is running a scientific prediction model, has not yet published its predictions for the city.
However, on a national scale, the group’s predicted outcome is for the ANC to lose around 14 percentage points, with the DA gaining.
In Gauteng, the CSIR projects the DA coming out on top with 31.7% of the vote—a 10.5 percentage point lead over the ANC’s projected 21.2%.
The ANC’s projected losses in Joburg come as the party focused more on its own branding and legacy than putting forward strong names to give the electorate someone to vote for.
According to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, the ANC has no intention of announcing its mayoral candidates before the election results are finalised.
Ahead of the elections, he said the party’s focus has been on its overall performance, not on individual candidates.
“People wanted us to run a campaign of mayoral candidates and force us into such,” he said.
“We didn’t have a mayoral campaign because the ANC doesn’t run an individualistic campaign, but we did tell our people who our preferred people are, whom we would be looking at as mayoral candidates.”
In the months leading up to the election, the party shortlisted three main candidates in Joburg, including incumbent Dada Morero; Loyiso Masuku, the Executive Deputy Mayor and Johannesburg regional chair; and Reverend Frank Chikane, an anti-apartheid veteran and chair of the ANC’s Integrity Commission.
However, the party did not campaign on any one individual or present Joburg voters with a clear message on who will turn the city’s fortunes around.
Mbalula said that only once the final results have been announced and the ANC’s standing is made clear will the party’s top 7 have the final say on who becomes mayor.
Big-name showdown in a battleground metro
The ANC’s strategy stands in stark contrast to the approach of the Democratic Alliance and other growing parties in the city, such as ActionSA, which put forward clear contenders.
The DA chose Helen Zille as its candidate early in the campaign season, and the stalwart hit the ground running.
Zille, a former DA leader and former Chairperson of the DA’s Federal Council, is a political icon and a household name for many in South Africa.
Her candidacy for Johannesburg mayor also set the stage for a clash with ActionSA, which put forward its leader, Herman Mashaba, as its candidate for the city.
Mashaba had previously served as Johannesburg’s mayor for the DA between 2016 and 2019.
He resigned from the position in October 2019, citing differences with DA leadership. He then went on to form his own political party, ActionSA, which has had a bitter rivalry with the DA.
While having a small national presence, ActionSA has emerged as a powerful force in Gauteng, particularly in Johannesburg and Tshwane.
This puts two very large personalities front and centre in the battle for Joburg, where the second-largest party (at current early levels)—the ANC—is sitting without a big name to root for.
The electoral commission is expected to release the outcome of the local government vote and the allocation of seats on the 257 municipal councils over the weekend.
Johannesburg vote count at 15%
CSIR prediction for Gauteng
Election polls for Johannesburg
This article has been updated to include the CSIR’s predictions for Gauteng.
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