Inside the Gathering 2026 — South Africa’s cities crisis collides with chaotic election preparation

The ANC failed to register 181 councillor candidates nationally for the 2026 local elections. In the Eastern Cape, the ANC reportedly got its list to national headquarters just minutes before the IEC’s deadline.

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina made her own headlines this month when she was filmed telling a disabled man  “jou ma se p*£s” as he was removed from a community meeting in Kouga. If the ANC is trying to lose this election, it’s certainly making a convincing case for it. 

The party’s fix for another problem has also made news this month. The ANC’s matric pledge now requires candidates without a matric certificate to commit to getting one within 12 months of taking office, or be removed from their seat. This follows years of concern about councillor capacity, and revelations that more than 300 councillors in KwaZulu-Natal alone are functionally illiterate.

Against that backdrop, Politically Aweh spent a day at The Gathering 2026, talking to politicians, journalists and ordinary citizens – many of them young, first-time voters – about the upcoming local elections.  

One trend we clocked: this election is increasingly being run like a social media content calendar. Helen Zille has built a viral strategy around rowing a boat through potholes.

The stunt-driven approach drew comparisons from Gathering attendees to New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s meme-native, influencer-powered campaign. One young attendee, Dean, told Politically Aweh she sees it too: Zille and Mamdani, she said, “are so similar when it comes to the digital footprint”. 

Politically Aweh put a related allegation to FF+ leader Corné Mulder: that his party is running paid influencer campaigns to reach young Black voters. Mulder didn’t deny it outright, but wouldn’t confirm it either – it’s “difficult to say”, he told us, whether paid influencers are actually part of the mix.

Influencers aren’t the only main characters in this election – plenty of celebrities are running too.

Poet and cultural commentator Ntsiki Mazwai is running for Johannesburg mayor for the Land Party, rapper and reality star SkeemGP entered the race for Ekurhuleni mayor and until this week, hip-hop veteran and radio DJ Ready D was in the running for mayor of Cape Town. Politically Aweh interviewed Ready D in studio just two weeks ago; days later, he withdrew his candidacy. He was Never Ready.

Not everyone was convinced. Caryn Dolley warned that social media lets politicians practise “vanity politics” – “it doesn’t necessarily translate to what that politician will be actually actively doing”, she said. In a fresh interview with Politically Aweh on the sidelines of The Gathering, Dolley pointed to the “TikTokification” of politics. 

Student Nonhlanhla Sonto Mashabana put it more bluntly, asking of Zille’s social media presence: “Girl, who is managing your post? Is what she’s saying on social media actually like happening, happening?”

Even Cape Town content creator Thameenah Daniels candidly shared that political influencing can be scary. “You don’t actually realise how much influence you have over the people that follow you,” she said, explaining that some people simply regurgitate the information they gather, instead of thinking about it critically.

The day’s most moving moment, though, had nothing to do with TikTok. Politically Aweh sat down with retired Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron, South Africa’s first openly gay judge, days after Cape Town’s rainbow pedestrian crossing was vandalised twice within hours.

Cameron said he wants an invitation to the third Pan-African Family Values conference taking place in Cape Town next year. The conference has been criticised for having an anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-women’s rights agenda.

“I've got a family. My partner, he’s part of our family… I want to go and tell them, don’t be hateful,” Cameron said. He also shared Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s response about a homophobic God – that he’d rather be sent to hell than spend eternity with one. Damning stuff.

Meanwhile, a far graver story continues to unfold in Kempton Park, where nine women have been found dead since July. Police say they’re still investigating whether one perpetrator is responsible, but have drawn criticism for telling women to avoid walking alone rather than hunting down whoever’s responsible. Classic. DM

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Poll Dancing, the Politically Aweh election-season live show, is taking place at the Homecoming Centre on 21 October, hosted by KG Mokgadi with Dan Corder, Dillan Oliphant and Lindy Johnson.