Gareth van Onselen’s fact check: 766 wards lost by ANC in LGEs. DA took 184 of them

ActionSA’s Athol Trollip told BizNews that only ANC breakaways such as COPE, the EFF and MK have ever taken ANC wards in significant numbers. Gareth van Onselen’s ward-by-ward count of the 2026 local government elections tells a different story. Of the 766 wards the ANC lost, MK took 318, or 41.5%. The DA took 184, almost a quarter, and was the only party to win ANC wards in every province. ActionSA came fourth with 54, all of them in Gauteng, where the DA took 46. The figures show where the ANC’s losses actually went, and who is really eating into its base..By Gareth van Onselen, Inside Politics.In an interview with BizNews [yesterday], Athol Trollip said the following: “To take ANC wards, from the ANC, is not a weakness, it is a significant strength, because no political party, other than an ANC breakaway party – such as COPE or EFF or MKP - has ever been able to do that. Yes, the DA will tell you that grew by so much African support, but they can’t take a significant number of ANC wards.”This is not just factually untrue, but also a gross distortion of what happened in 2026. Here is a slide of which party’s won the most wards off the ANC in 2026.(The slide uses ward-ballot results, allowing for a direct comparison of 4,445 wards, covering 99.5% of the 2021 ward total. For the small number of wards whose codes had changed (23), their geographical boundaries were used to identify possible additional losses. The slide shows 766 confirmed ANC ward losses, broken down by the parties that gained them and by province. It also shows what percentage of all 766 losses each party accounted for. There might be some small error in these totals as the results are not verified, but they will be 99% accurate.)MKP took the most ANC wards, 318 or 41.5% of all ANC ward losses; the DA took the second most off the ANC -184 wards off the ANC, or 24.0%. ASA, in fourth place behind the IFP, only took 54 wards off the ANC, or 7%.Significantly, the DA also was the only party to take wards off the ANC in every single province. Even if one limits the universe to Gauteng alone, the DA took 46 wards off the ANC, and ASA 54, so more or less on par..Follow *Inside Politics on X: @insidepols.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

Gareth van Onselen’s fact check: 766 wards lost by ANC in LGEs. DA took 184 of them

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