Standerton is hung: ANC wins 10 of 29 seats in Lekwa

Lekwa, the Mpumalanga municipality that includes Standerton, Morgenzon and Sakhile, has a hung council. With all 43 voting districts counted, the ANC has 10 of the 29 seats, five short of the 15 needed to govern alone (The People's Register; Ridge Times).

The ANC also had no majority after 2021, when it won 13 of 30 seats (Counted 2021). This time its share of the ward vote fell to 31.0% from 42.5% (ESP). The council has one seat fewer than in 2021.

Who won how many seats?

Source: The People's Register (IEC allocation, 14:21 SAST on 8 November), matching Counted, ESP and Ridge Times.

The ANC took 10 of the 15 wards. The DA, Lekwa Community Forum, Freedom Front Plus, SACP and Independent Lekwa Party won one ward each (The People's Register). ESP's ward map shows no ward ballot figures for Ward 15, although the IEC seat allocation counts 15 ward seats (ESP).

Turnout was 53.0% of 56,731 registered voters (ESP).

How has the council changed since 2021?

Sources: Counted 2021 and The People's Register.

How did the ward vote split?

Source: ESP, using IEC data. There were 29,467 valid ward votes.

What would it take to reach 15 seats?

This is seat arithmetic, not a prediction. No coalition had been announced in the sources used here.

Source: seat totals from The People's Register.

No single partner gets the ANC to 15, so it would need at least two. The eight other parties hold 19 seats between them, so a council without the ANC in charge would need most of them to agree. Before this election, Counted lists the council as governed by the ANC and EFF since October 2024 (Counted).

What happened with the quarantined ballot boxes?

Ridge Times reported on 7 November that there was a controversy over unsealed ballot boxes in Lekwa that were still in quarantine. It said the IEC confirmed that all counting was done and that an investigation continues. No outcome of that investigation had been published in the sources checked.

When will Lekwa get a mayor?

The seat figures are provisional until the IEC formally declares the result. eNCA reported that the IEC would announce the final national results at 18:00 on Sunday 8 November (eNCA).

After the result is declared, the Municipal Structures Act says the new council must meet within 14 days. Councillors elect the speaker and the mayor at that meeting, so any coalition would need 15 votes by then.

The official provisional figures are on the IEC results dashboard.