The next local government election is going to be held between 2 November 2026 and 30 January 2027. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) plans to hold the next local government elections between 2 November 2026 and 30 January 2027, with the official date to be determined by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa.
At the handover on Wednesday of the final ward boundaries to the IEC from the Municipal Demarcation Board, chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo urged Hlabini to announce the election date ahead of the proclamation.
“It is our sincere wish as the commission that the date once determined be announced without it being proclaimed so that all stakeholders may have a good opportunity to prepare themselves and not be taken by surprise at a point where it is officially proclaimed,” Mamabolo said.
He noted that Hlabisa had started consulting the IEC on the election date after the 2021 local government elections were moved from August to November during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Voter registration weekends for the local government elections will take place in June and August 2026, Mamabolo said, adding: “We do anticipate conducting two registration weekends with approximately a four or five-week period in between.”
“This is important so that voters are given maximum opportunity to register themselves, realising a registration weekend is a method of registration that provides us with the greatest registration yield,” he said.
The chief electoral officer said online registration was improving, although it did not match the turnout of in-person registration weekends.
He said after the final registration weekend, the minister would proclaim the election date.
“The effect of the proclamation of an election date is that persons who are registered on the day are the only ones who are eligible to participate in an impending election,” Mamabolo said.
The department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, in consultation with the IEC, was still determining a date for the local elections, Hlabisa said, adding that holding them in November could disrupt school and university examinations, while December polls would be impractical.
“If elections are in January, then political parties will be treating voters like Father Christmas,” he said.
Hlabisa said the Municipal Demarcation Board had finalised the ward delimitation process after technical consultations that began in mid-2024 and were followed by public consultations in May 2025.
“Municipal wards are building blocks of local democracy and the everyday arena of governance. They give practical meaning to representation and ensure councillors carry defined responsibilities for communities of roughly comparable voter sizes and help municipalities plan, allocate resources and account for delivery,” he said.
When wards are properly delimited, accountability is strengthened; citizens know who to approach; councillors can be held to account; and service planning for water, energy, roads, and settlements can be aligned with community impact, the minister said.
“It was resolved this year not to re-determine municipal outer boundaries ahead of the 2026 elections in order to maintain stability, forward delimitation and election readiness,” he said.
Although some ward boundaries in KwaZulu-Natal are under court deliberation, he said the Municipal Demarcation Board’s handover to the IEC triggered several downstream tasks such as voter registration and securing venues for voting districts.
The IEC must align its network of 23 000 voting districts with the new wards, Mamabolo said.
The chief electoral officer said the IEC would decide on voting stations with political parties on the ground around May next year, after which it would re-register affected voters under a “targeted and communication campaign”