JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng — With the final voter registration weekend now officially closed, the national spotlight for the upcoming LGE 2026 election demarcation process has fully shifted toward how municipal borders and ward delimitation will impact local communities. These boundary adjustments play a foundational role in the democratic process, ultimately determining polling station locations, ward affiliations, and political representation at the local government level.
To provide clarity on these complex electoral mechanics, Michael Sutcliffe, Director of City Insight and former chairperson of the Municipal Demarcation Board, offered a detailed breakdown of what the electorate needs to understand before heading to the polls this November.
Outer Borders vs. Internal Ward Delimitation
Ahead of the November elections, Sutcliffe clarified that voters and stakeholders must distinguish between two primary categories of boundary adjustments: municipal boundary demarcation and internal ward delimitation.
According to Sutcliffe, outer municipal boundaries—the geographical extent of a municipality—have seen very few changes this election cycle. Adjustments were largely minor and technical, such as incorporating an isolated community just outside a border or adjusting for traditional areas. Consequently, the structural makeup of the country remains intact, retaining the same 257 municipalities: 44 district municipalities, approximately 205 local municipalities within those districts, and eight metropolitan areas.
The real shifts occur within those borders through ward delimitation. Electoral authorities calculate a specific formula to determine the number of councillors required based on the volume of registered voters. However, this process highlights vast disparities in ward sizes across the nation.
For example, in smaller municipalities like Richtersfeld, a ward might average about 1,000 persons. In stark contrast, in eThekwini, some wards contain as many as 23,000 to 24,000 voters. Sutcliffe noted that these massive wards create significant logistical challenges on election day. He pointed to the 2024 elections, where large wards near Wits University resulted in long queues and voter panic. While smaller wards can process their electorate in an hour, heavily populated wards struggle with severe bottlenecks.
Apartheid’s Spatial Legacy and the PR Safeguard
Beyond logistics, demarcation is deeply intertwined with South Africa’s historical geography. Sutcliffe highlighted that the legacy of apartheid spatial planning remains evident in current ward demographics.
Currently, 82% of the country’s wards have a Black African majority (over 50%). Approximately 9% of wards have a majority of voters historically defined as Coloured, and about 4% to 5% have a White majority.
Ward boundaries are periodically readjusted to ensure that each ward has roughly the same number of registered voters. Sutcliffe explained that these adjustments between five-year election cycles are not solely driven by mass migration, but largely by demographic shifts, such as young people coming of voting age and entering the ballot pool in specific urban centers.
A major takeaway from the demarcation process is how it interacts with South Africa’s proportional representation (PR) system. Sutcliffe emphasized that South Africa possesses the “most proportional system in the world,” designed specifically to avoid the “first-past-the-post” disparities seen in other nations.
To illustrate this, Sutcliffe compared the South African system to the United Kingdom’s Labor Party, noting that in the UK, a party can secure 60% of parliamentary seats from just 30% of the popular vote. In South Africa, the constitution mandates that every vote must be of equal value. Even if a dominant party—such as the ANC, the DA, or the IFP—wins a specific ward with an overwhelming 70% or 80% majority, their overall municipal seat allocation is adjusted via the PR system to accurately reflect their total municipal vote share, which might only be 50%.
Debunking Gerrymandering: The Gamagara Municipality Dispute
A common concern during the redrawing of boundaries is “gerrymandering”—the manipulation of boundaries to favor an incumbent political party at the expense of the opposition.
Recent allegations of this nature include complaints from the DA regarding delimitation in the Gamagara Local Municipality in the Northern Cape. The opposition argued that the boundary redrawing only made sense if viewed as an attempt to favor the ANC and the EFF.
When asked how easy it is to engage in gerrymandering in South Africa, Sutcliffe dismissed the notion that true gerrymandering occurs within the current electoral framework. Because of the robust proportional representation system, all votes cast for a party like the DA still translate into PR councillors, regardless of how ward boundaries are drawn.
While there is often a public perception that boundaries are shifted to favor a specific party, Sutcliffe warned that such maneuvers can easily backfire. Incumbent parties may become complacent in perceived “safe” wards, failing to mobilize their base. This resulting drop in voter turnout can ultimately shrink their overall vote share and negatively impact their proportional representation seats, a phenomenon that can affect the ANC, the DA, or the EFF equally.
As LGE 2026 approaches, understanding the intersection of ward delimitation, historical demographics, and proportional representation remains vital for a fully informed electorate.
