Several delinquent councillors have spent the past five years trying to undermine South African democracy.
Last Wednesday, a combined multigenerational force of voters challenged them. Newcomers are gaining control of strategic wards nationwide and are likely to hold prominent roles in local, district and metropolitan municipal council leadership.
Following repeated undemocratic actions by these councillors to manipulate municipal budgets, ignore the auditor-general’s reports and directives and weaken batho phele (people first) principles through severe mismanagement — leading to successive qualified audits, false claims about completed infrastructure and basic services, efforts to block rivals from ward committees and nepotism in hiring — millions of South Africans turned out on November 4 to reject them and the parties that enabled them.
Several councillors linked to financial irregularities, where poor governance wasted large sums, lost their seats.
This included the Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality in the North West, where municipal manager Allan Losaba became the first official to receive an auditor-general’s certificate of debt last November that required him to pay personally for misappropriated funds.
The electoral loss showed voters’ resolve to demand stricter accountability for taxpayer money and better service delivery nationwide.
Likewise, voters removed several delinquent councillors in areas such as the Mangaung metro, where frozen posts were suddenly filled just before the change of administration through questionable and inefficient processes.
Although no law bars filling vacancies near an election, voters recognised the flawed approach.
The rejection of delinquent politicians is wide enough to cut through SA's political polarisation.
These figures lost contests even in long-held areas, such as KwaZulu-Natal’s Inkosi Langalibalele local municipality and the wider uThukela district, KwaDukuza local municipality and the broader iLembe District municipality, and the Eastern Cape’s Enoch Mgijima local municipality, Kumkani Mhlontlo local municipality and Kou-Kamma local municipality.
They faced widespread scrutiny and investigations into wasteful spending, irregular procurement and millions of rands wasted on incomplete, substandard or non-compliant sports fields and stadiums.
Many independents and loyal party voters viewed their term as a failure, which drove the result.
This outcome provides a vital check on the condescending conduct of legacy parties and veteran politicians, shown through institutional arrogance or contempt towards voters — such as claiming unemployed South Africans were “basking in the sun” rather than actively seeking jobs, implying social grant recipients should vote for the ANC to keep benefits or lose their state-funded lifeline, and shouting a severe profanity at a resident during a service delivery dispute.
It enables newcomers to examine corruption and lawbreaking, and act with good governance, countering any agenda that might hijack municipal coalition governments for narrow political advantage.
The nation still confronts long-term issues that neither party has addressed with clear solutions.
Over the next three years leading to national and provincial elections, while coalition governments persist, voters must be ready to resist further efforts by delinquent politicians to weaken the constitutional order by treating municipal councils as bargaining chips to tilt the balance of power elsewhere.
The country already feels different at the ward level, and it will shift at local, district and metropolitan municipal levels in the coming weeks, months and years as we implement revised integrated development plans, annual budgets and local economic development programmes.
Still, this is a day for pride.
Aspiring authoritarians with condescending behaviour often rely on empty election promises to secure power, further weakening the electorate to boost their political fortunes. In 2026, South Africans refused to let them. The system has held.
Beyond voters, five groups merit special recognition — election officials, party agents, election observers, judges, security forces and media.
Election officials from organisations such as the Election Monitoring Network performed their duties this year, informing voters and candidates about civic responsibilities and deploying peace monitors, conflict mediators and election observers despite constant pressure from spoilers who threatened a peaceful political environment during and between elections.
Spoilers indirectly threatened competitors who were fellow party members but recently split to contest as independents or under a different party logo.
In a few cases, Electoral Commission officials and police acted to halt interference from offenders, thereby safeguarding the elections.
Political parties merit both praise and blame — praise for abiding by the electoral code of conduct and deploying party agents at every voting station, and, regrettably, blame for failure to take action against leaders who spread provocative posts on social media.
Electoral Commission staff met isolated threats of disruption by carrying out their duties with the same diligence they have long shown, managing election logistics, assisting voters, tallying ballots and announcing the results within the legally prescribed period.
Before the vote, the Electoral Court interpreted laws, settled disputes and enforced compliance.
Through this work, judges upheld litigants’ rights, and every constitutionally sound argument prevailed.
The cases succeeded because judges insisted on legal adherence and constitutional protection despite attempts at intimidation.
Their capacity to resist political pressure highlights a strength of SA’s constitutional democracy, where separation of powers limits political authority.
They could decline pressure because only the judiciary may resolve electoral and constitutional issues.
This constitutionalism served as a shield against delinquent politicians’ undemocratic impulses.
Media houses also defended democracy this year under severe resource constraints by exposing deceptive promises and false claims from unscrupulous candidates seeking re-election, along with misinformation and disinformation, while highlighting trustworthy candidates — making journalism increasingly vital.
Yet the coming challenges should not eclipse what South Africans achieved.
This year, many stakeholders protected the rules that secure the vote and helped produce free and fair elections.
Tens of millions of South Africans visited the polls to exercise their most basic democratic right.
South Africans demonstrated their power to choose leaders.
Now we must stay alert until officials certify each race and winners assume office.