South Africans will head to the polls on 4 November 2026 after Cogta Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa formally proclaimed the date for the country’s municipal elections. What is clear is that the battle for the metros is not straightforward. All political parties must dig deeper to retain or win these metros.
The weekend of August 1-2 marked the last official voter registration period organised by the IEC. In the few days after this date, those who still wanted to register could do so via the online registration option.
The IEC reached several milestones during this last registration weekend. One of them was the announcement by the IEC that over 29 million people are now accounted for on the voters’ roll.
Another achievement was that during this last registration weekend more than 1.7 million people interacted with the IEC either to confirm their registration status or to register for the very first time. As many as 291 806 or 16% of South Africans registered for the first time.
Intriguingly, the youth used this voter registration window profitably. Those aged between 16 and 29 accounted for 485 757 or 26% of the registrations. Importantly, 46% of all brand-new voter registrations during this registration period came from voters under the age of 29. While this figure might look small, it is impressive compared to previous registrations.
