- The DA was leading Nelson Mandela Bay with 41.38% and had nearly 68% in Kouga, while its Eastern Cape support was running above its 2021 provincial result.
- The party has also gained ground in Makana and Blue Crane Route and became the biggest party in the hung Dr Beyers Naudé council.
The DA says it is heading for its best-ever Eastern Cape local election result after making gains in Nelson Mandela Bay, Kouga and several smaller municipalities.
Results released by the Electoral Commission show the party improving substantially on its 2021 performance in some of the province’s biggest battlegrounds as counting continues.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, the DA had 41.38% of the vote with about a quarter counted earlier on Thursday, ahead of the ANC on 26.22%.
That put the DA above the 39.92% it received in the metro in the 2021 local government elections, although thousands of votes were still outstanding. The ANC received 39.43% in Nelson Mandela Bay in 2021 and the two parties ended up with 48 council seats each.
The DA’s biggest surge is in Kouga, which includes Jeffreys Bay and Humansdorp.
It was sitting on 67.98% with 54% of votes counted earlier on Thursday, compared with the ANC’s 16.57% and the Patriotic Alliance’s 6.92%.
That would be a massive increase if it holds.
In 2021, the DA won 53.89% of the proportional representation vote in Kouga and took 16 of the council’s 30 seats. The ANC received 37.56% and won 11 seats.
The DA is also making gains in areas where the ANC previously dominated.
In Blue Crane Route, where the ANC won six of the 11 seats in 2021, the DA won four of the six wards this time, according to DA Eastern Cape leader Andrew Whitfield.
The IEC results show the new council is hung, with the ANC holding five of the 11 seats and no party having an outright majority.
The turnaround is significant because the DA received only 37.2% of ward votes in Blue Crane Route in 2021, compared with the ANC’s 56.2%.
In Dr Beyers Naudé, which includes Graaff-Reinet, the DA emerged as the biggest party with 10 of the council’s 24 seats, but without enough seats to govern alone.
The ANC had previously been the largest party there, winning 11 seats to the DA’s 10 in 2021. The DA received about 39% of ward votes in that election.
Whitfield said the DA received just over 40% this time and would now have to negotiate to form a government.
Makana, which includes Makhanda, has also shifted sharply.
The ANC lost its majority and fell to just over 31%, winning 10 of the 25 council seats. The DA increased its support to 27.24% and won six seats.
The Makana United Civic Movement came third with 19.51% and four seats, leaving no party able to govern alone.
Whitfield said the DA’s Makana support had risen from about 17% in 2021.
The DA also says its candidate Noziphiwo Mantshongo won Ward 6 in Umzimvubu from the ANC, another result it is pointing to as evidence that it is breaking into areas where it has historically struggled.
The provincial numbers also show the DA improving on its last local election performance.
In the 2021 elections, the DA received about 15.2% of the Eastern Cape vote when ward and proportional representation votes were combined. On the ward ballot alone it received 15.1%, compared with the ANC’s 62%.
In 2016, the DA’s Eastern Cape ward vote was 19.7%.
The SACP was on 5.8% and the UDM on 5.2%.
Those figures were still provisional and could change significantly as results from thousands of outstanding voting districts were added.
Whitfield said the party believed the pattern nevertheless showed it was heading for a historic result.
“We are still expecting a number of votes to come through, but confident that the DA is going to be in a strong position in Nelson Mandela Bay to put together a stable government.”
He said the party had retained Kouga with a bigger majority and made gains across several other municipalities.
“We are very encouraged by these results, and we are on track to make history by getting the strongest support we have ever seen in the Eastern Cape.”
The claim will only be confirmed once counting is completed.
The IEC is expected to formally announce the final 2026 local government election results on Sunday, 8 November.
