Ekurhuleni voters want the DA in coalition, but the DA does not want the ANC
An eNCA MarkData survey finds ANC and MK Party supporters in the metro name the DA as their preferred partner, while DA voters would rather go with Action SA or the FF Plus.
Supporters of the ANC and the MK Party in Ekurhuleni would most like the DA as a coalition partner. DA voters in the same metro would rather partner with Action SA or the FF Plus, and they reject the ANC more strongly than any other party.
That is the shape of an eNCA MarkData election survey published on 1 November 2026, which asked voters in the metro about their coalition preferences and their coalition rejections. As eNCA reported, the Ekurhuleni picture is more complicated than a single preference across the metro.
Among ANC supporters, 32.4% want no coalition partner at all. Of those who would accept one, 29.3% name the DA, 20.9% name Action SA, 16.3% name the MK Party and 13.1% name the EFF. The IFP sits at 3.2%, the Patriotic Alliance at 1.3% and the FF Plus at 0.9%, with 3.5% saying they do not know.
The rejection numbers tell a different story about the same voters. Asked which party they would reject, 44% of ANC supporters name the EFF, 30.8% name the DA and 28.5% name the MK Party. The IFP is rejected by 11.8%, the FF Plus by 11.2%, Action SA by 6.1% and the Patriotic Alliance by 2.4%.
DA supporters are the clearest in the survey. Just under 34.5% want no partner, 18.5% prefer Action SA and 18.1% prefer the FF Plus. The ANC is the preference of 11.9%, the Patriotic Alliance of 8.9%, the EFF of 7.1%, the MK Party of 5.1% and the IFP of 2.4%, with 6.6% saying they do not know.
DA voters reject the ANC at 59.7%, the EFF at 40.9% and the MK Party at 14.3%. Action SA is rejected by 5.2%, the Patriotic Alliance by 4.2%, the IFP by 3.8% and the FF Plus by 3.4%.
MK Party supporters split closely between the DA at 29.4% and no partner at all at 28.8%. The EFF is preferred by 19.4% and the ANC by 19%, with Action SA at 17.3%, the IFP at 10.9% and the FF Plus at 6.6%. Only 2.8% do not know and 0.5% name the Patriotic Alliance.
MK Party voters reject the ANC at 47.1%, the EFF at 26.4% and the DA at 25.7%. Action SA is rejected by 7.2%, the FF Plus by 5.6%, the IFP by 3.1% and the Patriotic Alliance by 2.2%.
Ekurhuleni is one of South Africa’s largest metros and has been run by a coalition since the 2021 local government elections, when no party won an outright majority. Coalition arithmetic there has direct consequences for residents: who sits in the mayoral chain, which parties hold the finance and infrastructure portfolios, and whether a council can hold together long enough to pass a budget and keep services running.
The survey measures preference among party supporters, not the outcome of any negotiation. The percentages are shares of each party’s own supporters answering a question, and they do not add up to 100 because respondents could name more than one option or decline. They show what each party’s base would tolerate, which is not the same as what party leaders will agree to behind closed doors.
What the numbers make plain is the gap in the middle of the metro. The partner ANC and MK Party supporters name most often is the DA. The party DA supporters reject most strongly, after the EFF, is the ANC. Any coalition that puts those two parties in the same government would have to carry a large share of each base across that line.
The full eNCA MarkData survey, including its sample size, fieldwork dates and margin of error, was not carried in the published summary. Those details matter for reading any survey, and readers should treat the percentages as the published findings of that poll rather than as a forecast of the next council.
