MK Party leads in four KwaZulu-Natal municipalities
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on IOL
The MK Party leads in four of the seven municipalities in the uMgungundlovu district, in KwaZulu-Natal province. The final count in Msunduzi has been postponed to Monday, with party-agent challenges forcing up to five recounts at some voting stations, according to local Independent Electoral Commission official Khulekani Mdadane.
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party won the largest share of seats in four municipalities in the uMgungundlovu district, in KwaZulu-Natal: Richmond, uMshwathi, Impendle and Mpofana, according to results published by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). In Richmond, the MK Party won 10 of the council’s 17 seats, compared with five for the ANC and two for the Democratic Alliance (DA).
In uMshwathi, Jacob Zuma’s party won 13 of 27 seats, ahead of the ANC (nine), the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP, three) and the DA (two). It also led in Impendle with six seats, while the ANC won two, and the DA, IFP and independent councillors won one each. In Mpofana, the MK Party led the ANC by four seats to three, with the DA taking two seats and the IFP and independents one each.
In Msunduzi, however, only 35% of the results had been entered by Friday because of challenges and repeated recounts at several voting stations. The IEC’s district official, Khulekani Mdadane, said the conclusion, hoped for on Sunday, had been postponed to Monday morning or midday. He said party agents had disrupted the count: “We counted twice, three times, four times. At one station, we counted five times,” he said, adding that IEC officials had been prevented from leaving some voting stations.
The MK Party’s advance in the district follows its claimed wide lead in KwaZulu-Natal, while counting continued at 546 voting stations in the province.
Update of 6 November 2026: With about 95% of votes counted, 110 South African municipal councils had no outright majority. Read: Local elections: 110 South African councils without a majority.
