My Vote Counts (MVC) has written to 20 political parties asking them to tell voters how they will approach coalition negotiations both before and after the 2026 local government elections.
The list comprises all 18 parties currently represented in the National Assembly and two nationally organised parties outside Parliament - the SACP and Afrika Mayibuye Movement - selected because of their potential relevance to coalition formation following the 2026 elections.
Letters were sent to the ANC, DA, MKP, EFF, IFP, PA, ActionSA, FF+, ACD, UDM, ATM, Al Jama-ah, Build One South Africa, NCC, RISE Mzansi, GOOD, PAC, UAT, SACP and and Afrika Mayibuye Movement.
Parties have been asked to respond by 17:00 on 5 October 2026.
Our position is that this information is necessary for voters to exercise their constitutional rights, MVC said in a statement. Section 19 of the Constitution protects every citizen’s right to make political choices and vote. Read together with the right of access to information in Section 32, voters should have meaningful information about how political parties may use the mandates entrusted to them.
The number of hung councils more than doubled from 27 following the 2016 elections to 66 following the 2021 elections. The number of municipalities governed through coalitions or other cooperative arrangements is expected to increase again after voters go to the polls on 4 November 2026.
“Voters should not have to vote for one party and discover only after the election that their vote has helped produce a governing arrangement they would never have supported,” said Noxolo Mfocwa, Advocacy Lead at My Vote Counts.
Each party has been asked to answer the following four questions:
1. What specific principles and values will your party use to determine whether another party is an acceptable coalition partner?
2. Which of your party’s policies or manifesto commitments will be non-negotiable in any coalition agreement?
3. Which political parties, if any, has your party ruled out as coalition partners after the 2026 local government elections?
4. Will your party commit to publishing every coalition agreement it enters, including any amendment, side agreement or confidence-and-supply agreement, within seven days of signature?
“We are not asking parties to predict the electoral arithmetic or bind themselves to negotiations that have not happened. We are asking them to disclose the principles, red lines and exclusions that will shape those negotiations. That information belongs to voters before they cast their ballots,” Mfocwa said.
Transparent Agreements are Central to Accountable Coalitions
The commitment to publish coalition agreements is central to MVC’s intervention. Transparency is required both before and after the election: voters need information about parties’ coalition positions before they vote and access to the agreements reached once coalition negotiations have concluded.
South Africa has spent several years considering how to make coalition government more stable and accountable. The 2021 Framework for Coalitions in Local Government and the framework that followed the 2023 National Dialogue on Coalition Governments both emphasise the importance of a common policy programme, mechanisms for resolving disputes and publicly available coalition agreements.
The Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill (B23-2026) is currently before Parliament. Legislation may establish useful rules, but it cannot, on its own, build the democratic political culture required to sustain principled and accountable coalitions.
Political parties do not need to wait for a new law to take transparency seriously. Publishing coalition agreements allows residents, civil society organisations, journalists and opposition parties to understand what has been agreed in their name and to hold coalition partners accountable for their commitments.
MVC Will Publish the Record
After the response deadline, MVC will publish the answers it receives and identify the parties that did not respond. This will give voters a clear and comparable record of what parties said before election day and a basis for holding them accountable for the governing arrangements they enter afterwards.
“Coalition government can broaden representation and require political compromise. But when agreements are negotiated in secret as exchanges for political positions or access to public resources, residents pay the price through unstable government and interrupted services,” said Joel Bregman, Project Lead: Money in Politics at MVC
“The standard should be straightforward: parties do not have to reveal the outcome of negotiations that have not yet happened, but they should reveal the principles and limits that will govern those negotiations. Once an agreement is reached, the public should be able to read it.” Bregman said.
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