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The number of political parties winning seats in elections in South Africa has grown significantly since 1994, particularly in municipal elections.

This is according to an analysis done by The Common Sense, which looked at the number of political parties that did well enough to secure seats in Parliament, provincial legislatures, and in municipal councils since 1994.

In 1994, the number of parties that did well enough to secure seats in Parliament was seven. This increased steadily and in the 2024 election, representatives from 18 parties won a seat in Parliament, the highest number yet.

The chart below shows this increase.

There have also been similar increases in the number of parties that did well enough to win seats in most provincial legislatures. The chart below shows these changes in provincial legislatures.

Whereas the numbers of parties represented in Parliament and provincial legislatures have roughly doubled since 1994, at municipal level the number has roughly tripled.

In 2000, the first year for which elections were held for our current system of municipal governance, there were 67 parties that managed to win at least one seat on a municipal council. This had grown to 90 by 2016 and then increased to 167 in 2021.

This growth is shown in the chart below.

This phenomenon is being seen across the democratic world. Increasingly the vote share in democracies has been splintering, with more parties than ever before securing seats in various national legislatures. This is especially true in Europe: in many European countries, the old established parties of the centre-right and the centre-left have lost significant levels of support.

The political tradition in post-apartheid South Africa is somewhat different. Unlike historically in Europe, there have not been regular alternations of power between a centre-right party and a centre-left party – rather, our politics has been dominated by the African National Congress (ANC) with a few other parties – such as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – winning most of the remaining other votes. However, in recent years South Africa has not been immune to the rise of smaller parties, and South Africa is also not dominated by the ANC to the extent it was a few decades ago.

Many people no longer believe that the big national parties (ANC, DA, and EFF, among others) can help solve their problems. They are instead turning to smaller, community-based parties, which are perceived to be more attuned to local and community issues, especially in municipal elections.

And in 2021, in municipalities across the country, small local and community-based parties won significant shares of the vote, more than any other previous election, shown by the growth in the number of parties winning seats. In some municipalities these small parties emerged as major forces, winning a significant fraction of the vote.

In Lekwa (Standerton), the Lekwa Community Forum was the second-biggest party in the municipality in 2021, winning a fifth of the vote, with the ANC winning just over 40%.

In Maluti-a-Phofung (Harrismith) in the Free State, another local party, the MAP16 Civic Movement (MAP16), won nearly 30% of the vote, with the ANC winning just under 40%.

In Cederberg, on the west coast of the Western Cape, the Cederberg First Residents’ Association also won nearly 30% of the vote, with the ANC on around 35%.

In Siyathemba (Prieska) in the Northern Cape, local party the Siyathemba Community Movement won nearly 40% of the vote, fewer than five points behind the ANC, which won just below 45%.

These are just some of the starkest examples of local parties performing well in the 2021 local elections, but the examples demonstrate that this phenomenon is found across the country.

These small community-based parties are formed by disgruntled members of the bigger national parties. For example, MAP16 was formed by a number of ANC councillors who had been expelled from the party for voting against an ANC mayor in the municipality over alleged corruption. In Newcastle, in 2021, a small local party, Team Sugar South Africa, won over 10% of the vote – it had been founded by a former EFF councillor who had been expelled from the party.

In addition, a country’s politics is a reflection of its society. This growth in the number of parties is simply a reflection of South Africa’s diversity, and is to be celebrated.

The rise of the smaller parties in many municipalities is also an example of enclavisation. It is a closely related phenomenon to the broader enclavisation phenomenon, where people, across the income spectrum, increasingly no longer rely on the state, turn away from the centre, and look for local solutions. This can be attributed to a loss of trust in the political establishment. This is not a uniquely South African phenomenon and is also a reason why the old established parties in much of the West are losing significant support.

The upcoming local election, due to be held in November, will likely see this trend accelerate, with even more local and community-based parties emerging. In many municipalities these small parties will not be kingmakers or opposition parties, but senior members of governing coalitions.