‘We don’t have to get above 50%’: Zille says DA just needs to be biggest party in 2026 elections

Democratic Alliance (DA) federal chairperson Helen Zille says her party does not need to exceed 50% of the vote to govern in a coalition government ahead of 2026 municipal elections.

Zille made these remarks during a roundtable event hosted by the South African Chamber of Commerce UK, where she discussed her perspectives on the country’s political landscape following this year’s national and provincial elections.

Zille on coalition governments

Amid ongoing discussions about electoral reforms, Zille acknowledged that coalitions will play a pivotal role in South Africa’s future.

“We are trying to set up coalition governments where we can, but not at any price. Fortunately in the Western Cape, we don’t need a coalition,” she said.

The DA federal chairperson conceded that achieving over 50% of the vote in a proportional representation (PR) electoral system was a rare occurrence.

South Africa’s electoral system is based on a closed-list PR system for national and provincial elections, while local government elections use a mixture of PR and constituency-based systems.

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The PR system, despite its popularity among political parties, has been criticised for being undemocratic as power stayed with the party, instead of the voters.

Furthermore, Zille expressed her belief that securing over 20% of the vote in a coalition-based and proportional representation system is a “good percentage”.

She stressed that her party was focused on the 2026 municipal elections.

“We don’t have to get above 50%, we just have to be the biggest party in the coalition and so what we are going for hell-for-leather in 2026 is to try and be the biggest party in as many local governments as we can,” DA federal chair continued.

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DA wants Gauteng metros 2026 elections – Zille

Zille emphasised the importance of the DA winning and becoming the largest party in Gauteng to gain control of the metropolitan municipalities.

“Urban government is much more important than provincial government when it comes to the economy and if we become the biggest party in all of those metros in Gauteng, we effectively run the economy and that is going to be very important.”

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She indicated that the DA has already begun its search for “brilliant” mayoral and local government candidates to help propel the party to the “next step” in the 2029 general election, with the aim of becoming the largest party at national level in South Africa, assuming that “the ANC continues to unravel”.

“So no we are not going to get above 50%, but no one is. The critical thing about the election that happened this year was that it broke the single party dominance,” Zille said.

Municipal Coalitions Bill

A new piece of legislation is being developed to help stabilise coalition governments in municipalities ahead of the 2026 local government elections.

The Municipal Coalitions Bill, which was discussed in parliament last week, is expected to be formally tabled by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) in July 2025.

Key provisions in the bill include introducing legally binding coalition agreements, setting a minimum threshold of 1% of votes for a council seat, limiting no-confidence votes to occur by a show of hands only after two years, and replacing mayoral executive systems with a collective executive approach in hung councils.

The number of hung councils has risen sharply over the years, increasing from 29 in 2000 to 82 in 2021.

In a hung council, no single party holds more than 50% of the votes.

This increase has led to numerous governance and service delivery challenges, highlighting the need for a structured framework to guide the formation and management of coalition councils.

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