South Africa Local Elections: EFF Loses Ground as DA Gains Votes

Julius Malema's public explanation for the EFF's decline points to a structural tension in opposition politics when former rivals govern together, a dynamic that may reshape South Africa's...

South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters lost voter support to the Democratic Alliance in the country's 2026 local government elections, according to EFF leader Julius Malema, who attributed the decline directly to the African National Congress's decision to govern in coalition with the DA through the Government of National Unity. The statement was reported by Daily Maverick on November 7, 2026.

Malema told supporters that voters questioned why they should cast ballots for the EFF when the ANC itself was willing to work alongside the DA and award it cabinet positions in government. His argument frames the ANC-DA coalition as having blurred the ideological lines that previously gave the EFF a distinctive identity as a left-wing, anti-establishment alternative to both parties.

The Government of National Unity was formed following the May 2024 general election, in which the ANC fell below 50 percent of the national vote for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994. The ANC received approximately 40 percent of the vote in that election, according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa, prompting it to invite multiple parties, including the DA, into a power-sharing arrangement.

The DA, which received roughly 21.8 percent in the 2024 national vote and draws its core support from white, coloured, and urban middle-class communities, was allocated several ministerial portfolios under the GNU arrangement. Critics from within the left argued at the time that the ANC was granting legitimacy to a party whose policy positions on land, economic redistribution, and social welfare differ substantially from ANC platform commitments.

The EFF, which has historically campaigned on land expropriation without compensation, nationalization of mines and banks, and free public services, positioned itself in the 2024 election as a rejection of both the ANC and the DA. The party received approximately 9.5 percent in that election, according to Electoral Commission results.

In the 2026 local elections, the precise vote totals for each party had not been fully certified as of the time of publication. The specific seat counts and percentage shifts that underpinned Malema's claim were not independently confirmed in available certified results at the time this article was written. Full certified results from the Electoral Commission of South Africa would clarify the magnitude of the EFF's losses.

Malema's explanation, if accurate, illustrates a known dynamic in coalition politics: when parties that once opposed each other enter government together, voters who opposed both may recalibrate their choices. Political scientists refer to this as coalition contamination, in which association with a former rival reduces a party's distinctiveness in the eyes of its base.

South Africa uses a proportional representation system for both national and local elections, meaning that seat allocations track closely with vote share. In that context, even a moderate shift in EFF support toward the DA at the local level would have direct consequences for council composition in municipalities where the EFF has historically held balance-of-power positions.

The DA has sought to expand its voter base beyond its traditional constituencies, particularly in urban areas where service delivery failures under ANC-controlled municipalities have generated dissatisfaction across racial and income groups. Whether the 2026 local election results reflect a durable shift in those communities or a one-cycle protest vote will require comparative data from future electoral cycles.

The ANC has not publicly responded to Malema's specific claim as of publication. The party's national executive has previously defended the GNU arrangement as a necessary mechanism for stable governance given the fragmented parliamentary arithmetic produced by the 2024 election results.