Your municipality · eThekwini
Sithumba
ANC loses its majority
2021 results
Council seats
Other43 seats19.3% votes
Explain SA CoalitionsWhy team up? And why is it tricky?
A coalition is two or more parties agreeing to govern together. Here’s how it works in a council.
An imaginary council · 10 seats · 6 for a majority
Most seats ≠ a majority
SA’s election system gives different parties a share of the seats. Sometimes none wins more than half. That’s a hung council.
A is the biggest. Four still isn’t six.
Make a deal. Vote together.
Parties negotiate who leads and what to do. Councillors elect the mayor and vote on budgets. Partners stay separate parties, but agree to work together.
Party A4+Party C2=Together6Enough seats. Now agree on a plan.
Who leads · What gets funded · How to settle disputesThe deal has to hold
Partners can disagree over policies, jobs or spending. A small party can tip the balance. If support breaks down, budgets and decisions can stall.
6 / 10back the deal
↑ 6 needed. No seats to spare.
What if Party C leaves?
4 / 10still back the deal
↑ Still 6 needed. Now 2 short.
C keeps its seats. A needs new support to pass a budget.
Why six? A council budget needs support from more than half of all councillors. Other votes can follow different rules. Losing a partner doesn’t automatically remove a mayor.
Vote breakdown
Combined ballot votes
Other: show remaining parties: hide remaining parties21.4%332 447 votes
How the council changed
Swipe to see history
Seats unavailable for this election.
101 for a majority · 200 seats
103 for a majority · 205 seats
110 for a majority · 219 seats
112 for a majority · 222 seats
Swipe to see history
History data & sources
Ward + municipal PR votes. Connecting bands show the same party’s share or seats between elections, not individual voters moving between parties. Select a year to inspect its values; use the year selector in the results section to explore its places.
The chart names the five largest parties across these elections. The vote list also names parties gaining at least 2 percentage points since the previous election; remaining votes are combined under Other. Other’s change compares the same group of parties in both elections. Missing values remain unavailable.
- All points use the same ballot basis. Ballot totals are not counts of individual voters.
- Missing or grouped party rows remain gaps unless a complete, ungrouped list establishes zero votes.
- Municipal boundaries can change between elections. Published area results are not boundary-adjusted.
Council government
Who governed after 2021
Administrations & sources
MISTRA records the administrations that governed after the 2021 election, through 28 February 2026. The latest recorded administration is shown below, followed by its predecessors. Party roles and officeholders are recorded at formation; later changes may appear in the notes.
Members at formation · minority administration · 03 Feb 2023 · recorded active at source cutoff
Outside support at formation: ADeC + AIC + Al Jama-ah + APF + ATM + EFF + JEP + MF + PFP + PRM + TA. Supporters are separate from governing members.
Inaugural mayor: M. Kaunda (ANC)
Source notes: The MSA voted with the government at the one confidence division held in this period and is recorded at no other. It is coded Unknown.
- Release note: ideological classification conflicts with coded membership.
3 recorded administrations · 2021–February 2026
- ANC + NFP
03 Feb 2023 → Active at cutoff · 28 Feb 2026
Members at formation. Outside support: ADeC + AIC + Al Jama-ah + APF + ATM + EFF + JEP + MF + PFP + PRM + TA. Inaugural mayor: M. Kaunda.
The MSA voted with the government at the one confidence division held in this period and is recorded at no other. It is coded Unknown.
Release note: ideological classification conflicts with coded membership.
- ANC
13 Dec 2022 → 03 Feb 2023 · Recomposition
Members at formation. Outside support: ADeC + AIC + APF + ATM + JEP + MF + NFP + PFP + PRM + TA. Inaugural mayor: M. Kaunda.
Al Jama-ah, the DLC and the MSA each voted with the government once and were absent when it was next tested; KZNI voted with it once and against it once. All four are coded Unknown.
- ABC + ANC
24 Nov 2021 → 13 Dec 2022 · Recomposition
Members at formation. Inaugural mayor: M. Kaunda.
The mayor and deputy mayor were elected by secret ballot, so the vote carries no party attribution. Seventeen smaller parties are coded Unknown on that account.
Go closer
Browse wardsWards in eThekwini
111 wards
What is a ward?
One ward elects one councillor to the municipal council.
A part of a local or metro municipality. Its councillor represents residents on that council.
The ward candidate with the most votes wins, even with less than half the votes.
Winning a ward does not mean winning control of the whole council. The council also includes PR councillors.
IEC guide to council seats
Local, district or metro?
Local councils and district councils share responsibilities. Metros combine both.
Handles local services such as refuse collection and local roads, with responsibilities shared with the district.
Coordinates planning and shared services across its area, such as bulk water infrastructure. Functions vary by area.
Combines local and district responsibilities. There is no separate district council above it.
A district municipality is a level of local government. A voting district is a small voting area; it has no council of its own.
CoGTA guide to local governmentSources & result details
IEC: 15 Jan 2022, 17:50 SAST · checked 05 Nov 2026, 15:38 SAST
Historical comparisons use published area results. Boundaries may change between elections. Vote shares use the ballot labelled on each chart; ballots are not individual voters.
Vote percentages beside council seats combine ward and municipal PR ballots. Seat counts include both ward and PR councillors.
Seat calculation & source
These are the ward and PR seats published by the IEC. The totals add up to all 222 council seats. This is the historical election allocation, not a record of government changes during the term. Any grouped “Other” seats remain grouped.
IEC result time: 15 Jan 2022, 17:50 SAST · Source figures ↗
Ward vs PR ballots
Ward: choose a person. PR: choose a party.
The candidate with the most votes in the whole ward wins one seat. They do not need more than 50%.
PR means proportional representation. Party-list seats balance the council’s overall party representation.
Party ward votes and municipal PR votes both count towards the party’s overall seat allocation.
Outside metros, voters also have a separate district PR ballot. An independent can stand in a ward but not on a party PR list.
IEC guide to council seatsThe council results cover all of eThekwini. Ward results include areas outside Sithumba.
This page uses the Stats SA statistical main-place boundary labelled 2016. It overlaps 3 of the 2026 wards; the everyday town boundary may differ.
Town-to-ward mappings are available for 2026 only. The historical wards above belong to the whole municipality in 2021.
Positive-area intersections of the 2016 Stats SA main-place polygon and the MDB 2026 ward polygons. Full-ward figures include votes outside the place; votes are never allocated by overlap area.