With a month to go before the 4 November local government elections, the contest for eThekwini is coming down to which party can convert campaign machinery into votes, and the latest polling suggests Jacob Zuma’s MK party is running the most effective operation in KwaZulu-Natal’s largest municipality.
A survey commissioned as part of News24’s Elections Poll ‘26 project indicates the MK party has built a sizeable lead over its rivals in the metro, with support driven largely by voters backing the former president’s political movement. The same findings point to a delivery problem for the ANC, which is struggling to retain its voter base in one of its most important urban strongholds, a metro it has traditionally controlled.
The poll’s results raise the prospect of a major political realignment in the city if current voter trends hold at the ballot box. The ANC remains a significant player, but the figures suggest it faces an uphill battle to reverse declining support, with little time left on the campaign calendar. Opposition parties, including the DA and the IFP, continue campaigning to expand their reach, although neither currently matches the MKP’s momentum in the metro, according to the survey.
Analysts have increasingly identified eThekwini as a key battleground in the run-up to the elections, given its strategic importance and its history as an ANC-controlled metro. With campaigning entering its final stretch, the city could become one of the defining contests of the 2026 local government elections, with the MK party seeking to turn growing support into control of one of South Africa’s most influential metros. Reporting such as that carried at https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/elections/zumas-mk-party-set-to-be-ethekwinis-biggest-party-anc-struggles/ has tracked how the ANC’s difficulties in the metro have sharpened in the final month of campaigning.
Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, Zuma took a swipe at President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying the country is being “run by a crook who has not done anything for the people.” The remark adds to a long-running public feud between the two men, with tensions having played out through sharp rhetorical exchanges, high-stakes court battles and Zuma’s eventual break from the ANC to lead the MK party.
Zuma has signalled that his political operation will not be winding down. Last week he said he had no intention of stepping away from public life, declaring that he still has “time on this earth” and wants to help change South Africa before he dies. “I have told some people that they should be happy because I still have time on this earth; I do not have time to go, no. How can we depart and leave this country in these conditions?” Zuma said. “I am not going anywhere; I will remain right where I am.”
The former president also called for unity among black South Africans, saying past injustices should not prevent people from working together. “Many bad things were done to us, but because we are not people with bad hearts, we are at peace,” he said.
Zuma made those remarks at the relaunch of the Jacob Gedleyihlekisa (JG) Zuma Foundation in Durban, where he highlighted his long-standing passion for education and revealed that poverty and apartheid-era circumstances had prevented him from completing his own schooling.
For now, the practical question facing every party in eThekwini is execution: whether the MK party can hold its polling advantage through election day, whether the ANC can stabilise its base in a metro it has long run, and whether the DA and IFP can close a gap that, on current numbers, remains wide.