Council governments

80 municipalities · 175 recorded administrations

These records cover November 2021 to 28 February 2026. They are historical context, not a live government register. Party roles, seats and officeholders describe each administration at formation; later changes may appear in its notes. “Active” means active at MISTRA’s cutoff.

Members and outside supporters are listed separately. A seat majority does not confirm a coalition agreement. Missing records do not establish a single-party government. District councils are outside this dataset’s coverage.

Our 2026 comparisons show the seats of the recorded founding members as a hypothetical combination. Estimates remain estimates, and completed reporting does not mean an official declaration. A confirmed government change requires separately sourced administrations before and after the election.

Published 7 October 2026 · MISTRA 2026 edition, version 1.0. Known issues from its release notes are shown with affected records.

We also record single-party administrations when municipal documents establish who formed the government. Buffalo City’s 2024/25 annual report records an ANC-led government following the 2021 election; the IEC allocation gives the ANC 61 of 100 seats. These separately sourced facts are not part of MISTRA’s coalition dataset or its licence.

Elsewhere, a complete 2021 IEC allocation can show the previous council’s outright majority. We label this as an election outcome, rather than evidence of uninterrupted government. Vote-share charts on municipality, province and national pages compare the same ballot basis over time and identify provisional 2026 points.

Caromba, L., Simayile, S., & Ndletyana, A. (2026). MISTRA Coalitions Barometer Dataset, 2026 edition (Version 1.0) [Data set]. Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection. https://coalitions.mistra.org.za

CC BY 4.0 ↗ applies to MISTRA’s original coalition coding. Underlying IEC seat figures and municipal identifiers retain their original terms; this is not a blanket open licence for every field. We have not imported ACCORD’s database, financial indicators or population figures.

Counted normalises dates, matches municipal codes to its directory, expands party labels and attaches source issue flags. It preserves original notes and inaugural values. Our comparisons are Counted’s calculations; they do not imply MISTRA endorsement.