DA reaches out for coalition partners as 150 to 160 councils face hung verdicts

The Democratic Alliance has begun informal outreach to rival parties as it moves to secure coalition arrangements in hung municipal councils, with its leader putting the number of councils likely to need co-governing agreements at between 150 and 160.

That figure, from DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis speaking at the national results operations centre in Midrand, points to roughly two-thirds of South Africa’s municipalities needing some form of coalition administration before they can function. For residents, the practical question is who will run the water, refuse, electricity and housing offices in their own town, and whether a council can pass a budget at all.

As Briefly News reported on 6 November 2026, Hill-Lewis set out non-negotiable conditions for any partner: commitments on governance integrity, active anti-corruption efforts and public accountability. The party said current discussions remain informal and that formal multi-party negotiations are expected to begin shortly. Final coalition agreements will be made publicly available once concluded, though the negotiations themselves will not be conducted in the open.

That last point matters for voters in the metros. Coalition talks that happen behind closed doors are where council committee posts, mayoral positions and budget priorities get settled, and the public sees the result only after the deal is signed.

The DA’s own projection is growth of more than 100 ward seats and upwards of 200 council seats nationally. Early tallies placed it as the largest party in several major metropolitan areas, including Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay, while it retained outright majorities in the City of Cape Town and uMngeni Municipality.

Those are projections and provisional tallies, not final declarations. The Independent Electoral Commission was still posting results as counting continued.

The broader picture from the 2026 local government elections is a map that has fragmented. The ANC recorded its weakest national result since 1994, ActionSA made gains in Gauteng’s major metros, and in the first 100 councils decided, 69 were hung. Smaller parties have accordingly gained influence in coalition talks, which is why the DA’s outreach is not a formality but a negotiation with several possible partners in each region.

For South Africans, hung councils have a track record here. When no party holds a majority, the first tests are usually the speaker, the mayor and the budget, and a council that cannot settle those can stall on service delivery decisions that residents feel directly. Ratepayers in a hung municipality often wait longer for a budget to pass, and contractors wait longer to be paid.

Hill-Lewis framed the moment as a transformative period for local governance. The conditions he has attached to talks are the party’s public position on what any arrangement must contain, and they are the yardstick against which voters can hold the DA to account once the agreements are published.

What is not yet known is who the partners will be in each council, and whether the numbers in the provisional tallies hold once all results are declared. The DA has said the concluded agreements will be made public, which gives residents in the affected municipalities a document to check against the promises made during the campaign.

The Enquirer will keep reporting on the coalition negotiations as parties move from informal outreach to formal talks, and on what the resulting councils mean for the services residents rely on.