The DA has emerged as the biggest party in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB), winning 39.92% of the vote, giving it 48 seats in the 120-seat city council.
The ANC also won 48 seats, with 39.4% of the vote.
Both parties will be disappointed with the result, the DA having won 57 seats in 2016, and the ANC is down from 50.
A coalition will now be necessary to govern the municipality, which has suffered from unstable government over the past five years since 2016.
The EFF was the third largest party, with eight seats, up from six in 2016.
Other parties that won seats were the Northern Alliance, a local interest party from the north of the city, which won three seats; the ACDP (two); Freedom Front Plus (two); Defenders of the People (two); Patriotic Alliance (PA) (two); Abantu Integrity Movement, another local interest movement (one); United Democratic Movement (one); African Independent Congress (AIC) (one); GOOD (one); and the Pan Africanist Congress (one).
Unless the DA and ANC choose to form a coalition (which seems highly unlikely), one of the two big parties will have to cobble together a multi-party coalition with some of the 12 other parties that have won seats. Residents of NMB are likely in for another five years of chaotic municipal governance.
In eThekwini (Durban) the ANC has fallen below 50% for the first time. In that metro it won 42% of the vote, enough to give it 96 of the 222 seats on the city council. The DA won 58 seats, while the EFF secured 24 seats.
The IFP was the fourth-biggest party with sixteen seats, while newcomer, Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA, won four seats. The rest of the vote was severely fragmented, with five other parties winning two seats, and fourteen parties winning one seat each.
Any coalition, whether led by the ANC or the DA, will likely have to include the EFF.
With counting completed in Ekurhuleni, the ANC finished with 86 seats out of 224, with the DA second on 65. The EFF won 31 seats and ActionSA secured 15. The FF+ managed eight seats, the PA four, the IFP three. The ANC’s current coalition partner in the metro, the AIC, also won three seats. The ACDP won two seats and seven other parties won one seat each.
Counting has been completed in one other metro. In Mangaung (Bloemfontein) the ANC won 51 of the 101, with 50.6% of the vote. The DA will be the largest opposition party, with 26 seats. The EFF came in third with 12 seats, while the FF+ won five seats. The PA and the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats each won two seats, while the ACDP, AIC, and African Transformation Movement each secured one seat.