Almost one-third of South Africa’s 213 municipalities and metropolitan areas had no party with an outright majority after the 2021 local government elections, leading to coalition governments.

One way to gauge the success or failure of these coalitions is by counting the number of mayors each has had in the two-and-a-half years since the elections.

Among the 15 municipalities with three or more mayors, four are major metros: Nelson Mandela Bay, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, and Tshwane. In some of these metros, coalition conflicts have resulted in mayors from smaller parties being elected.

Three of these 15 municipalities have mayors whose political parties hold 3% or less of the council seats. The political parties are Al Jama-ah, the African Independent Congress and the Northern Alliance.

Two of these municipalities, Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay, are significant metropolitan areas with populations of 5-million and 1.2-million people, respectively.