eThekwini voters pick their coalition partners, and the MK Party is on almost everyone's list
A MarkData survey for eNCA finds MK Party voters want the IFP, IFP voters want the MK Party, and ANC voters name the MK Party first too, while the DA is the party most respondents want kept out.
eThekwini metro voters have named the coalition partners they would accept and the ones they would refuse, and the MK Party sits at the centre of almost every answer. The MarkData Election Survey, published by eNCA on 1 November 2026, puts the MK Party on the cusp of a majority in the metro and then asks voters across the party divide who they would work with.
As eNCA reported on 1 November, MK Party voters in eThekwini choose the IFP as their preferred coalition partner at 30.7%, with 30.6% preferring no other party at all, Action SA at 13.7%, the DA at 12.5%, the EFF at 9.3% and the ANC at 7.6%. Just 1.1% said they did not know.
More than half of the IFP’s eThekwini respondents name the MK Party as their preferred partner. The survey does not give that IFP figure as a percentage in its published breakdown, and it is reported here as eNCA stated it.
ANC voters in the metro also put the MK Party first, at 39%, ahead of no other party at 31.3%, the EFF at 12.8%, the DA at 12.1%, the IFP at 10% and Action SA at 8.7%. Of ANC respondents, 5.4% did not know.
The DA’s own voters are the least keen on a partner. Asked for their preference, 31.7% chose no other party, 13.6% chose the IFP, 8.2% chose Action SA, 5.2% chose the MK Party, 3.3% chose the ANC and 0.3% chose the EFF. Just 3.1% did not know.
Rejection is where the numbers bite hardest. Among ANC respondents, the EFF is the most rejected partner at 31.2%, followed by the DA at 27.6%, the MK Party at 26.4%, the IFP at 19% and Action SA at 6%. Among DA respondents, 56% reject the ANC, 52.1% reject the EFF, 45.4% reject the MK Party, 15% reject the IFP and 6.1% reject Action SA. Among MK Party respondents, 59.9% reject the ANC, 37.6% reject the DA, 19.6% reject the EFF, 9.5% reject the IFP and 4.1% reject Action SA.
For a reader outside KwaZulu-Natal, the shape of these answers is the story. eThekwini is South Africa’s largest metro by population and its council has been the most contested in the country since the 2021 local government elections, when no party won a majority and the city was run through a series of fragile arrangements. The survey suggests that if the MK Party falls short of 50% again, its voters would rather sit with the IFP than with the ANC, and that the IFP’s voters would return the favour. It also suggests that an ANC-MK Party arrangement, the pairing that has dominated national coalition talk, is the one both sets of voters are least comfortable with. Almost six in ten MK Party respondents reject the ANC, and just under four in ten ANC respondents name the MK Party as their first choice.
The survey does not tell readers what the parties themselves will do. Coalition talks are conducted by party leaders and provincial and national structures, and the preferences of voters in one metro do not bind them. What the numbers do show is where the public patience sits before any of that bargaining begins.
The MarkData Election Survey is conducted for eNCA. The figures above are as published by the broadcaster on 1 November 2026, and the survey’s sample size, fieldwork dates and margin of error are not set out in the material available to The Enquirer.
