The local government election is done. The counting is done. What is not done is the ANC deciding what kind of party it wants to be after losing ground in all eight metros.
That decision lands on Thursday, when the ANC’s national executive committee meets to set its coalition line. And the signals coming out of Luthuli House this week point in one direction: away from the DA.
According to the Sunday Times (https://www.sundaytimes.timeslive.co.za/politics/2026-11-11-ramaphosa-urges-anc-to-avoid-da-in-johannesburg-coalition/), President Cyril Ramaphosa told Monday’s national working committee to explore a Johannesburg coalition without the DA. Gauteng leaders reportedly went further and pitched working with ActionSA across all three Gauteng metros, which insiders described as getting “an overwhelming endorsement”.
That is a remarkable position for the man who built the government of national unity with the DA at national level.
The numbers the ANC has to live with
In Johannesburg the DA took 34.79%, the ANC 20.25% and ActionSA 16.27%, according to the same report. The ANC now holds majorities in 51 municipalities, down from 161 in 2021. News24 (https://www.news24.com/politics/coalitions-heres-who-will-lead-talks-as-138-councils-hang-in-the-balance-20261109-0890) counts 138 hung councils nationally, with parties given 14 days from the declaration of results to constitute them.
Daily Maverick’s analysis (https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-11-09-da-emerges-as-largest-party-in-five-gauteng-hubs-but-actionsa-holds-the-key/) is blunt about the arithmetic. The DA is the largest party in all three Gauteng metros. A DA and ActionSA deal in Johannesburg “would easily get over the line with the help of one more party”, while the ANC “would need ActionSA, the EFF and probably at least two other parties”.
Read that again. The anti-DA route in Joburg means another sprawling, multiparty arrangement. Johannesburg has already lived through that movie.
Three options, one problem
News24 reports (https://www.news24.com/politics/anc-divided-on-da-ahead-of-crucial-coalition-decision-20261110-1242) that the NWC failed to reach a decision and that three models are on the table: a coalition with the DA; a coalition with ActionSA, the EFF and smaller parties; or a confidence and supply deal, where the DA governs alone in the three Gauteng metros and Nelson Mandela Bay, the ANC governs Mangaung and Buffalo City, and the two back each other on mayoral votes and against no-confidence motions.
Here is the awkward part. The ANC already has a written answer. Its own coalition framework, adopted by the NEC in May 2024, says the largest party should lead and that the ANC should only partner with parties that share its commitment to constitutional values. News24 notes the paper says the EFF and MK do not meet that test. That document has never been withdrawn. It has simply been ignored in all three Gauteng metros and Nelson Mandela Bay.
So Thursday is not really about strategy. It is about whether the ANC follows its own rules.
What is actually driving the anti-DA mood
Some of it is ideology. ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji called a DA coalition a “no-go area” and a threat to transformation. Some of it is pride: Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi circulated a clip of the DA’s Cilliers Brink calling the ANC “weak”. And some of it is fear of the wrong partner. Several NWC members reportedly called an ActionSA deal “foolish” because ActionSA grew by taking wards from the ANC and could become a bigger threat by 2029.
That last point deserves attention. The ANC’s own leaders are telling each other that the partner they are being pushed towards is the party eating their base. Their alternative is the party their base dislikes. Neither option fixes why voters left.
The accountability angle
Coalition talks are always presented as “service to citizens”. Fikile Mbalula’s letter centralising negotiations says the approach in each council will be guided by “service to citizens and the renewal of the movement”.
Citizens will judge that by one measure: does the deal hold? The DM analysis notes that the coalitions formed after 2021 were fragile and sprawling, and that this time several majorities can be built with fewer parties. A grudge-driven arrangement that needs four or five partners in Johannesburg would throw that chance away.
Ramaphosa also reportedly urged members to stop trading blame. Fair enough. But the most useful thing the NEC can do on Thursday is answer three questions in public:
- Does the May 2024 coalition framework still stand, yes or no?
- If the largest party should lead, why is the ANC exploring deals that sideline the largest party in Joburg?
- If the ANC goes into opposition anywhere, will it say so plainly rather than destabilise from the benches?
Joburg residents have had enough mayors in five years. Whatever Luthuli House decides, it should be able to explain it in one sentence that a ratepayer in Soweto or Sandton can test in a year’s time.
Sources opened for this draft: Sunday Times/TimesLIVE 11 Nov 2026; News24 9 and 10 Nov 2026; Daily Maverick 10 Nov 2026.