From Daily Maverick · Lunga Simelane · · 1m 10s
ActionSA takes 51 township wards from ANC in Gauteng
ActionSA has won wards across Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni in the 2026 local elections, marking a major shift from townships that backed the ANC for decades.
In brief
ActionSA has won wards across Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni in the 2026 local elections, marking a major shift from townships that backed the ANC for decades. ActionSA won fifty-one wards across three Gauteng metros in the 2026 local elections, breaking the ANC's hold on traditionally ANC-supporting townships…
ActionSA breaks into Gauteng townships
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ActionSA has won fifty-one wards across Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni in the 2026 local elections, taking ground from the ANC in traditionally ANC-supporting communities.
Where ActionSA won in each metro
ActionSA led twenty-six wards in Tshwane, fourteen in Johannesburg and eleven in Ekurhuleni as of Friday, six November. Gains span Soweto, Tembisa, Atteridgeville, Mabopane and Hammanskraal.
ANC's ward count collapses across metros
In Johannesburg the ANC's wards fell from eighty-seven in 2021 to forty-four. In Ekurhuleni they dropped from seventy-eight to twenty-six. In Tshwane they declined from seventy to twenty-nine.
A historic shift in Gauteng politics
ActionSA won no wards in Gauteng in 2021. The party now positions itself as an alternative in the province's townships, expanding its electoral base beyond its initial breakthrough.
The bottom line
ActionSA won fifty-one wards across three Gauteng metros in the 2026 local elections, breaking the ANC's hold on traditionally ANC-supporting townships for the first time.
