By Thapelo Molefe
The EFF has suffered a major electoral setback, losing about 40% of its previous national vote share as provisional results from Wednesday’s local government elections show the party struggling across the country.
The party’s support has fallen from about 10.3% in 2021 to 6.2%, according to Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) results published by election analysis platform ESP.
By 12.52pm on Friday, 6 November, results had been captured from 19,506 of the country’s 23,696 voting districts, representing 82.3% of the total.
The figures, based on the ward ballot, place the EFF fourth nationally, behind the African National Congress (ANC), Democratic Alliance (DA) and uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.
In Gauteng, the EFF was polling at approximately 6.7%, compared with the 11.89% reported for the previous local government elections.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the party recorded one of its sharpest declines, with provisional ward-ballot support of about 1.8%, compared with the 8.64% reported in 2021.
The MK Party, contesting its first local government elections, has emerged as a major political force in KZN and was polling at more than 34% in the province on Friday morning.
In the City of Johannesburg, the EFF was polling at about 6.9%, compared with the 10.69% reported in 2021 and 11.09% in 2016.
In Tshwane, its provisional support stood at approximately 6.1%, while in Ekurhuleni it was polling at about 6.5%, substantially below its reported 2021 result of 13.57%.
The results also indicate losses in other provinces, including the Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West, Northern Cape and Western Cape, although counting remains incomplete in several municipalities.
Despite the national decline, the EFF has retained pockets of significant support, particularly in parts of the North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
EFF secretary-general Marshall Dlamini acknowledged that the party had hoped for a stronger performance but said the leadership would wait for the final results before assessing what went wrong.
“Look, we wanted more, definitely. We came in these elections prepared. And like any election, when we’re going to contest, we always prepare ourselves to go and do our best,” Dlamini said.
“The results, as things stand now, they are where they are. We’re not happy about that. But the results are still trickling through.”
Dlamini said the party would conduct an assessment based on facts and research rather than emotional reactions, pointing to differences in its performance between rural areas and metros.
He said the EFF appeared to be performing better in some rural areas, particularly in the North West, where it was hopeful of winning its first municipality in Lekwa-Teemane.
However, he acknowledged that the party was experiencing difficulties across metropolitan areas.
“If you look at North West now, we’re likely to take our first municipality in Lekwa-Teemane. So you can see they are coming there, but there’s issues in the metros that we’ve seen, on all the metros,” he said.
The EFF’s performance in Lekwa-Teemane offers one exception to its broader electoral decline.
According to completed results published by ESP, the party won four of the municipality’s seven wards and secured five of the 14 council seats, equalling the ANC’s representation.
The ANC received 35% of the proportional representation vote, narrowly ahead of the EFF’s 32.9%.
Neither party secured the eight seats needed for an outright majority, leaving the municipality facing coalition negotiations.
Dlamini also said the party had already won 32 wards nationally, compared with 19 in the 2021 local government elections, adding that this represented growth despite its declining overall vote share.
Those national ward totals had not been independently verified against a completed IEC tally by Friday afternoon.
The decline follows another electoral setback for the EFF in the 2024 national and provincial elections, when it fell to fourth position in the National Assembly after securing 9.52% of the national vote and 39 parliamentary seats.
The emergence of the MK Party, which won 14.58% of the national vote in 2024, pushed the EFF out of its position as the country’s third-largest parliamentary party.
Despite the disappointing results, Dlamini insisted that the EFF remained a significant political force and would continue participating in coalition negotiations where its involvement could improve service delivery.
“We’re definitely going to engage in the coalitions discussions based on these outcomes. And we’re going to where we think it’s in the best interest of our people,” he said.
Dlamini also rejected suggestions that the party’s future political relevance was in question, saying the leadership would use the election results to prepare for the 2029 national elections.
“We’ll have to do all that analysis, not informed by emotions, but by data research and facts so that they can be able to guide us for 2029 because we’re going to be a factor in 2029. The EFF is here to stay,” he said.
The party had entered the elections with ambitions of making significant gains in Tshwane, where its treasurer-general and mayoral candidate, Omphile Maotwe, previously expressed confidence that its campaign strategy would deliver a strong performance.
Maotwe said the party had identified 40 wards where it expected exceptional results, concentrating resources on a strategic group of 10 wards.
She also identified university campuses, including the University of Pretoria, Tshwane University of Technology and the University of South Africa, as important battlegrounds for the party’s youth mobilisation campaign.
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