Komani is hung: ANC drops from 44 to 31 seats in Enoch Mgijima

Enoch Mgijima, the Eastern Cape municipality that includes Komani (Queenstown), Whittlesea, Sterkstroom and Molteno, has a hung council. With all 168 voting districts counted, the ANC has 31 of the 68 seats, four short of the 35 needed to govern alone (ESP; Komani News).

That is a big fall. In 2021 the ANC won 44 seats in the same 68-seat council (Counted 2021). Its share of the ward vote dropped to 43.4% from 60.5% (ESP).

Who won how many seats?

Source: The People's Register (IEC allocation), matching ESP and Counted.

The ANC won 26 of the 34 wards. The DA won four, The Independents two, and the SACP and Patriotic Alliance one each (ESP).

In 2021 the DA had 7 seats, the EFF 6 and The Independents 5 (Counted 2021). The SACP, which ran on its own this time, is now the third-biggest party on the council.

Turnout was 51.3% of about 128,000 registered voters, with 63,798 valid ward votes (ESP).

How did the ward vote split?

Source: ESP, using IEC data.

What would it take to reach 35 seats?

This is seat arithmetic, not a prediction. No coalition had been announced in the sources used here, and Komani News reported on 6 November that no mayoral candidate or first sitting date had been confirmed.

Source: seat totals from The People's Register.

The other 11 parties hold 37 seats between them, so a council without the ANC in charge would need almost all of them to agree.

Will the SACP back the ANC?

Not automatically. SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila told SABC News on Friday that the party is not supporting any party in coalition talks and will first meet other left-wing parties (SABC News). The SACP told the Sunday Times it would set tough conditions before backing the ANC in hung councils, and the ANC's head of elections, Mdumiseni Ntuli, said the ANC had not approached the SACP (Sunday Times).

When will Komani get a mayor?

The IEC planned to announce the final national results on Sunday, 8 November, at 18:00 (eNCA). After a council's result is declared, the Municipal Structures Act gives 14 days for the first council meeting, where councillors elect the speaker and the mayor (Municipal Structures Act).

The seat figures are the IEC's provisional allocation and can change until the result is formally declared. You can check them on the IEC results dashboard.