ANC-SACP pairing falls short in Buffalo City as UDM seeks opposition pact

The ANC’s preferred partnership with the SACP would leave it four seats short of an outright majority in Buffalo City. The UDM has promoted an alternative opposition grouping, but that route also depends on parties overcoming their differences.

The full council field

TPR’s provisional Buffalo City results page, checked on 10 November, lists ANC 42, UDM 19, DA 17, EFF seven and SACP five. ActionSA, the ATM and the Patriotic Alliance have two each; the FF Plus, PAC, African Independent Congress and MK party have one each. The 12 parties account for all 100 seats.

The ANC and SACP therefore total 47 against a full-council majority of 51. The UDM and DA together have 36. Neither pairing has a full-council majority; electing a mayor will depend on actual council votes.

GroundUp’s 10 November report records the scale of the change: the ANC fell from 61 seats in 2021 to 42, while the UDM rose from one to 19.

Competing approaches

ANC Eastern Cape spokesperson Yanga Zicina identified the SACP as his party’s preferred partner in Babalo Ndenze’s EWN report on 9 November, pointing to their continuing alliance. The same report said the SACP was still considering its options. That leaves the communists’ choice unresolved in the published account.

Algoa FM reported on 7 November that UDM mayoral candidate Nqabayomzi Kwankwa ruled out an ANC coalition, preferring opposition pacts or the opposition benches. EWN’s 9 November report quoted him outlining preliminary talks to assess possibilities, without naming agreed partners.

Algoa also reported a UDM proposal involving the DA, EFF, SACP, ATM, PA and ActionSA. On the allocation above, those seven parties would have 54 seats. Without the EFF, that particular combination falls to 47. Algoa’s account also reported the DA’s opposition to a coalition with the EFF.

The DA’s published national mandate, issued by federal council chairperson Ashor Sarupen on 7 November, authorises discussions with all political parties, guided by accountability, service delivery and the rule of law, and coordinated nationally. It does not confirm acceptance of the UDM’s Buffalo City grouping or a local agreement with the EFF.

The service test

The 2024/25 accounts show the scale of infrastructure and billing problems. Buffalo City’s final annual report records electricity losses valued at R831.43 million, or 32.19%, and water losses at R187.49 million, or 41.42%, in the financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2025. The previous year’s recorded rates were 24.20% and 37.74%, respectively.

The totals cover different losses. Note 46 distinguishes network losses from electricity theft, faults and billing discrepancies; its water figures include physical losses, metering inaccuracies and authorised consumption that was not billed. They cannot all be treated as cash a new administration could recover. The report says water losses were being addressed through pipe and meter replacement.

There is already money budgeted against parts of that problem. Annexure 2 of the municipality’s first-adjustment budget package labels R432.01 million as the approved 2026/27 capital budget for water and sanitation. Its approved column includes R46 million for smart water metering and R16.07 million for pipe and water-meter replacement in Mdantsane.

The same schedule includes R147.53 million for the Bhisho, King William’s Town and Zwelitsha bulk regional sewer scheme, and R35 million for electricity smart-meter conversion. The schedule establishes budget provision; it does not report project completion or savings.

The accompanying report to council, dated 25 August 2026, sought approval to carry forward funding for unfinished projects from the previous year. The figures cited here come from its existing approved-budget column. The proposed adjustment’s adoption was not established in the documents reviewed.

Meter replacement is therefore already a budgeted municipal priority. The political test is whether the next administration can turn that provision into completed work and lower losses.

What is still pending

EWN reported on 10 November that Fikile Mbalula had authorised ANC provincial, regional and municipal structures to explore local arrangements and report their assessments to central leaders. The party’s national executive committee is expected to discuss the centralised approach on Thursday, 12 November. The ANC’s local negotiating assessments still feed into that national process.

Buffalo City’s 10 November procurement advert seeks communications, photography and social-media services for an inaugural council meeting, with quotations closing on 17 November at 11am. It gives a quotation deadline, not a sitting date. No formal inaugural notice was verified in the council-agenda records checked on 10 November.