{"id":883133,"date":"2026-11-06T16:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T14:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=883133"},"modified":"2026-11-06T16:22:41","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T14:22:41","slug":"2026-election-results-first-major-city-in-south-africa-reaches-final-count-with-the-anc-suffering-a-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/883133\/2026-election-results-first-major-city-in-south-africa-reaches-final-count-with-the-anc-suffering-a-blow\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 election results: First major city in South Africa reaches final count &#8211; with the ANC suffering a blow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape has completed its vote count for the 2026 Local Government Elections, with the ANC emerging as the largest party, but losing its majority in a huge decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/newsday.co.za\/elections\/\">Click here to see live results from the Newsday Election Results Portal.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The final count for Buffalo City saw the ANC end with 42.02% of the vote, leading in 38 out of 50 wards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ANC was followed by the UDM, which emerged as the main opposition in the metro, leading in 4 wards and ending with 18.27% of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The UDM, which managed only a meagre 1% of the vote in the 2021 elections, saw a huge 17.3-percentage-point gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ANC, meanwhile, crumbled by almost the exact same amount, losing 17.4 percentage points over the past five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite being the leading party in the metro, the ANC&#8217;s decline hit hard, losing the majority it held in 2021, when it had 59.4% of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other political parties also lost ground in the metro, with the EFF falling 5.3 percentage points, and the DA losing 2.6 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This gave way to risers, including the SACP, which contested the elections independently from its alliance partner, the ANC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other gainers were the ATM, PA and VF+, with ActionSA joining the SACP as a first-timer in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over 496,000 votes were tallied from almost 460,000 voters, with a turnout of 55.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was significantly higher than in 2021, where 360,000 votes were counted from 400,000 voters, for a turnout of 45%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/newsday.co.za\/elections\/\">Click here to see live results from the Newsday Election Results Portal.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Buffalo City &#8211; 100% counted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/BFO-100.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"507\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/BFO-100-1024x507.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-883136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/BFO-100-1024x507.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/BFO-100-300x149.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/BFO-100-768x380.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/BFO-100.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\" class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Party<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">2021 Result<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">2026 Final<br>(100% counted)<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Change (%pt)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>ANC<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">59.43%<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">42.02%<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">-17.41<\/mark><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>UDM<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">0.96%<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">18.27%<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\">+17.31<\/mark><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>DA<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">19.52%<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16.90%<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">-2.62<\/mark><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>EFF<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12.06%<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">6.78%<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">-5.28<\/mark><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>SACP<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">&#8211;<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">4.46%<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\">+4.46<\/mark><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Metros-01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Metros-01-1024x428.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-883146\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Metros-01-1024x428.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Metros-01-300x125.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Metros-01-768x321.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Metros-01.jpg 1297w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As overall vote counting approaches the 90% mark, the big winners and losers in the election are becoming clearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At 88% of the count, the ANC is still the vote leader at 31.8% of the tally nationally, but its lead in the metros has crumbled, with Buffalo City the only one where it is the biggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DA, growing its national tally by 2.3 percentage points, is the main opposition party, with just under 24%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The party has made strong gains across the metros and leads in six of them, including an outright majority in Cape Town, and strong leads in Joburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, strong leads are not majorities, and the coalition talks have already kicked off as it is now clear that no one will rule the roost alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ActionSA, while limited nationally with 5% of the vote, has become a key player in Gauteng\u2014the main opposition in Tshwane and a growing presence in Ekurhuleni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The party has been flat in Joburg but is so far maintaining its third-place position behind the DA and ANC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another party that has emerged as a regional powerhouse is Jacob Zuma&#8217;s MK Party, which currently leads in eThekwini with almost 41% of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This has relegated the ANC to third fiddle behind the DA, having lost around 25 percentage points (at a 57% vote count).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ANC is not alone in suffering blows in the 2026 election, however. The EFF has so far recorded losses in every major metro and nationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Its strongest showing has been in Mangaung, where it sits at 8.2% (at 89% vote count), having declined 3.1 percentage points since 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nationally, the party is at 6.25%, down 4 percentage points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/newsday.co.za\/elections\/\">Click here to see live results from the Newsday Election Results Portal.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">South Africa at 87.9% of votes counted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/SA-879.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"503\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/SA-879-1024x503.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-883139\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/SA-879-1024x503.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/SA-879-300x147.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/SA-879-768x377.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/SA-879.jpg 1303w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape has completed its vote count for the 2026 Local Government Elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":883141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2118710594660344256","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2263172597836472","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18032078069857756","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[27034,1875,23338],"class_list":["post-883133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-2026-election","tag-anc","tag-newsday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":883147,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883133\/revisions\/883147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}