The parties

The ANC is South Africa's governing party since 1994, a broad-based African-nationalist movement usually described as centre-left and social-democratic, rooted in the anti-apartheid liberation struggle. It favours state-led development, redistribution and redress through Black economic empowerment, and the expansion of public services and free basic services.

The Democratic Alliance is a liberal party championing a capable, professional state, market-friendly economics, non-racialism and constitutionalism. At local level it campaigns on corruption-free administration and its governing record in the Western Cape and municipalities such as Midvaal.

The EFF is a South African far-left, Marxist-Leninist and Pan-Africanist party founded in 2013 by Julius Malema. It advocates radical economic transformation, including land expropriation without compensation, nationalisation, insourcing of municipal work and expanded free basic services.

The uMkhonto weSizwe Party is a left-wing African-nationalist party founded in 2023 and led by former president Jacob Zuma, advocating radical economic transformation, nationalisation of mines and banks, land expropriation without compensation and constitutional change toward parliamentary and traditional sovereignty. It became South Africa's third-largest party at the 2024 general election, with its support base concentrated in KwaZulu-Natal.

ActionSA, founded in 2020 by former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, is a centrist good-governance party campaigning on anti-corruption, professional service delivery and non-racialism while rejecting BEE and affirmative action as currently implemented. It pairs pro-market, fiscally disciplined local government with a hardline stance against illegal immigration.

The Freedom Front Plus is a conservative, Afrikaner-oriented party that emphasises minority rights, self-determination, non-racial merit-based governance and free-market principles. At local level it campaigns on back-to-basics service delivery, financial discipline, private-sector involvement and opposition to race-based policies.

The Patriotic Alliance, founded in 2013 by Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene, is a populist, socially conservative party rooted in Coloured working-class communities. Its platform centres on zero tolerance for illegal immigration, tough anti-crime measures (including restoring the death penalty), Christian moral values and practical 'turnaround' service delivery.

The Inkatha Freedom Party is a South African party rooted in Zulu cultural tradition and federalism, promoting ethical leadership, traditional authority, self-help and social conservatism. It positions itself as a clean-governance alternative focused on service delivery and accountable local government.

The African Christian Democratic Party is a Christian-democratic party founded on Biblical principles, emphasising ethical leadership, family values, religious freedom and the sanctity of life. At local level it campaigns on clean, competent governance, merit-based administration and improved basic service delivery.

The South African Communist Party (SACP), founded in 1921 and led by General Secretary Solly Mapaila, is a Marxist-Leninist party historically allied to the ANC in the Tripartite Alliance. For 2026 it is contesting local elections independently for the first time, campaigning for public ownership, insourcing, pro-poor services and working-class 'people's power'.

A Muslim-founded but non-sectarian party (est. 2007) rooted in values of justice, compassion and morality, championing pro-poor service delivery, land tenure for the landless and human-rights-centred governance. It has punched above its weight in Johannesburg coalition politics, twice holding the executive mayoralty from a base of only three councillors.

The Afrika Mayibuye Movement is a South African party founded in September 2025 by Floyd Shivambu after his expulsion from the MK Party, describing itself as a 21st-century liberation movement rooted in pan-Africanism, Marxist-Leninist economics, land restoration and black economic emancipation. Its 'Restoration Manifesto' calls for nationalising key industries, land reform and integrating traditional and religious leaders into governance.

A centrist party founded by Bantu Holomisa in 1997, blending social conservatism with developmental, good-governance politics. Its 2026 LGE manifesto centres on 'self-sustainable municipalities' built through infrastructure maintenance, clean governance and financial discipline.

A faith-based 'Social Democratic Peace Party' (founded 2018) anchoring governance in 'divine values' of fairness and accountability. It emphasises moral governance, social justice, universal services (NHI), timely social grants and economic transformation for disadvantaged communities.

The Congress of the People is a centrist, constitutionalist party formed in 2008 by former ANC members led by Mosiuoa Lekota, emphasising clean governance and anti-corruption. After Lekota stepped back and then died, the party is rebuilding under interim leadership ahead of the 2026 polls.

Founded in 1959, the PAC is a Pan-Africanist, land-centred party holding that the land belongs to Africans ('the rest are visitors'). Its 2026 LGE manifesto centres on land redistribution, township economic revitalisation and municipal accountability.

An anti-illegal-immigration movement founded in Soweto in 2021 that registered as a political party in 2025 to contest the 2026 municipal elections. Its platform is built almost entirely around removing undocumented migrants and prioritising South Africans in jobs, services and schooling; critics describe it as xenophobic, which it denies.

Build One South Africa (BOSA), founded in 2022 and led by Mmusi Maimane, is a centrist party promoting a capable, merit-based state, market-friendly reform and national unity. It emphasises ending cadre deployment, liberalising energy, professionalising and decentralising policing, and private-sector-led job creation.

RISE Mzansi is a centrist, non-racial party founded in 2023 that campaigns on ethical leadership, meritocratic governance and social justice. It pairs pro-poor social provision (free basic services, indigent relief) with support for decentralised, community-owned energy.

GOOD is a South African social-democratic party founded in 2018 and led by Patricia de Lille. It campaigns on spatial justice, clean and capable governance, and improved municipal service delivery.

Abantu Batho Congress is a KwaZulu-Natal-based party founded on 8 January 2020 by businessman and former ANC/NFP uMvoti mayor Philani Mavundla, describing itself as an Afrocentric, Pan-Africanist and 'womanist' revolutionary movement focused on jobs, ending outsourcing and clean municipal finances. It has also voiced Zulu-nationalist positions (including support for an independent Zulu state in 2024) and frames its mission as economic transformation and the upliftment of the previously disadvantaged.

A left-wing pan-Africanist and socialist party formed on 5 September 2007 when Themba Godi and two PAC provincial legislators crossed the floor from the Pan Africanist Congress; like the PAC it appeals to 'Africanists, Pan Africanists and socialists'. Under Godi, who chaired Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts for 13 years, its local-government message centres on clean governance, anti-corruption and disciplined 'serve the people' leadership.

APEMO describes itself as a movement of ordinary citizens promoting active citizenry and a 'liberal, progressive and social democracy' with equal opportunities while addressing past injustices. It is a 2021 breakaway from the National Freedom Party built around service delivery in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal.

The custodian of the Black Consciousness Movement, founded in 1978, AZAPO pursues a socialist 'Republic of Azania'. Its central goals are reconquering and redistributing the land, building black power, decolonisation and professional, accountable governance.

ICOSA is a small Western Cape civic-style party, founded by former Karoo district manager Truman Prince after his 2006 expulsion from the ANC, that presents itself as a community-driven alternative to both the ANC and the DA and appeals mainly to coloured voters in the Klein Karoo and Garden Route. Its website says the party is 'driven by the people and the communities it represent' and seeks a 'cohesive, equal, progressive, prosperous, orderly and free' South Africa with 'government fully accountable to the people'; no detailed policy programme is published.

ISANCO presents itself as a civic movement rather than a conventional party, stressing 'communities at the centre of service delivery' and 'purposes over promises'. Its national '14 cardinal pillars' are broadly left-populist: a state bank, minimum living wages, land expropriation for those who use it, state pharmaceuticals, a R2,200 flat social grant and a subsidised township economy; it joined the opposition Multi-Party Charter in 2023.

The NCC (registered with the IEC as the Cape Coloured Congress, CCC) is a Cape Town-based party that describes itself as social democratic and campaigns for people classified coloured as 'First Nation descendants', opposing affirmative action and BEE as applied and demanding jobs and housing allocated on regional demographics. Its 2024 manifesto combines pro-poor positions (scrapping municipal arrears, subsidised electricity, state-built rental housing, land reform without compensation) with hard-line law-and-order stances such as declaring gangs terrorists and a limited death penalty.

The NFP is a KwaZulu-Natal-rooted party launched on 25 January 2011 by former IFP national chairperson Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi after a split with the IFP, and is generally described as centre-left and social-democratic with an emphasis on traditional leadership, rural development and women's empowerment. Under president Ivan Barnes its public messaging since 2025 has centred on anti-corruption, service delivery and 'economic justice' for the historically dispossessed, alongside a bitter internal dispute over its role in the KZN provincial coalition.

Team Sugar grew out of a labour campaign for Newcastle textile-factory workers and broke away from the EFF in 2021; it is a localist, worker-focused party with no published manifesto found. Its founder's campaign against factories hiring undocumented foreign nationals was a founding dispute with the EFF.

The United Independent Movement, founded in 2020 by the late Neil de Beer, is a right-of-centre, Christian-democratic party in the DA-led Multi-Party Charter, favouring investment-friendly economics and tough action on crime. Jacques Taljaard was elected president in 2025 after de Beer's death.