Local government elections, explained simply

Every five years you choose the people who run the town or city you live in. The 2026 local government election is that vote. It is the election closest to your front door: it decides who fixes your street, bills you for water, and answers when the taps run dry.

1. You get two or three ballots. One is for your ward — a small area, like a few suburbs or villages — where you pick one person to speak for your neighbourhood. The others are for parties, where you pick a party rather than a person. In a metro like Johannesburg or Cape Town you get two ballots; in smaller towns you also get one for the wider district council.
2. Votes turn into seats. The person who wins your ward gets a seat on the council. The party votes decide the rest of the seats, so a party that gets a quarter of the votes ends up with roughly a quarter of the council.
3. The council picks the mayor. Councillors — not voters — elect the mayor and the speaker. If one party wins more than half the seats, it can do that on its own. If no party does, the council is hung, and parties have to team up in a coalition to govern.