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Five wards to vote again following deaths of elected councillors

Residents in affected wards across Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Free State will have to return to the polls after candidates who were elected during the 2026 local government elections died.

By Mapaballo Borotho

Residents in parts of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Free State will have to vote for their ward councillors again following the deaths of candidates who were elected during the 2026 local government elections.

This was confirmed by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Friday, 13 November 2026.

The commission confirmed that five wards will be affected. Two of the candidates who died had reportedly won in more than one ward.

It is not yet clear when residents in the affected wards will return to the polls.

The affected wards include Ward 12 in the Johannes Phumani Phungula Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, which was won by an uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party candidate, and Ward 13 in the Dihlabeng Municipality in the Free State, which was won by an ANC candidate.

Other affected wards include Ward 16 in Raymond Mhlaba in the Eastern Cape and Ward 12 in Merafong, Gauteng, both won by ANC candidates. Ward 17 in uMlazi, KwaZulu-Natal, was won by an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) candidate.

The IEC has since published a list of declared councillors in the Government Gazette on Friday, triggering a 14-day deadline for municipal managers to convene inaugural council sittings.

Meanwhile, the 2026 local government elections recorded the highest number of objections, with the IEC confirming that it had received 1,708 purported objections relating to the elections.

The commission said 433 of these met the legal requirements to be considered formal objections.

Of those, 252 had been finalised, with three upheld and 249 rejected.

The complaints included alleged counting errors, mistakes in capturing results and claims that special votes had been left out of the totals.

Other submissions raised concerns about unusually high numbers of spoiled ballots at some voting stations.

IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya said the unprecedented number of submissions, as well as the need for careful consideration, had slowed the process.

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