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South Africa’s 2026 local government elections have produced a sharp increase in the number of municipal councils affected by electoral overhangs, with 33 municipalities affected, compared with just six in 2021.

An electoral overhang occurs when a party wins more ward seats than its overall share of the vote would entitle it to under the proportional representation (PR) system used in South Africa’s local government elections.

Because ward seats are allocated according to the outcome of individual ward contests, a party can win a disproportionately large number of them relative to its share of the total municipal vote. The party retains all the ward seats it has won, even if these exceed its proportional entitlement. The remaining PR seats are then allocated among the other parties to ensure that the council retains its required size.

In simple terms, a party cannot lose a ward seat simply because it has won more seats than its share of the vote would ordinarily give it. Instead, the overhang is accommodated by reducing the number of PR seats available to the other parties.

In the 2021 local government elections, six municipalities recorded overhangs, accounting for a combined seven excess ward seats.

Five of these municipalities were affected by a single excess seat, while Emfuleni in Gauteng recorded an overhang of two seats for the African National Congress (ANC).

By comparison, the 2026 elections saw 33 municipalities record overhangs, involving a combined 71 excess ward seats.

The ANC accounted for 66 of the 71 excess seats. The largest overhangs were in Ekurhuleni, where the ANC won 59 wards but was entitled to only 50 seats, and Johannesburg, where it won 63 wards against an entitlement of 55. Four metros were affected in 2026, compared with none in 2021.

The chart below shows where overhang was in 2021.

The chart below shows how widespread overhang was in 2026.

In seven councils, the overhang gave a party an outright majority despite it winning less than half of the vote. In each case, the party won every ward in the municipality, leaving too few PR seats to make up the difference for its opponents.

The ANC gained majorities this way in Phokwane (Hartswater) and Dikgatlong (Barkly West), both in the Northern Cape, Greater Taung in North West and Greater Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal. The uMkhonto weSizwe Party did so in iMpendle and Johannes Phumani Pungula (Ixopo), both in KwaZulu-Natal, and Rise Tsantsabane Communities did so in Tsantsabane (Postmasburg) in the Northern Cape. In Dikgatlong, for example, the ANC won 42.3% of the vote but all eight wards, giving it eight of the council’s 15 seats.

In 2021, this happened in only two councils, Kai !Garib and Phokwane, both won by the ANC. Phokwane is the only council where overhang produced a majority in both elections.

The chart below shows the councils where overhang produced a majority.

The results show a substantial increase in the number of municipalities affected by electoral overhangs, the number of excess ward seats, and the number of councils where overhang produced a majority between the two local government elections.