South Africa has four months left until the local government election on 4 November 2026, and if the last local elections are anything to go by, voter turnout is likely to be low in South Africa’s metros.

In 2021, all the metros had a voter turnout below 50%, which means fewer than half of the people who registered to vote actually cast a vote. People were less apathetic in the 2016 elections, where the lowest voter turnout was in Buffalo City, where 56% of the registered voters cast their votes. Nelson Mandela Bay and Cape Town have had the highest voter turnouts of the metros in the past three elections.

Countrywide, voter turnout dropped between 2016 and 2021 in all but four municipalities: two in Limpopo (Collins Chabane and Maruleng) and two in the Northern Cape (Kamiesberg and Richtersveld).

The largest drop in turnout was reported in Mkhambathini in KwaZulu-Natal, followed by Mbombela in Mpumalanga, which both dropped from the 60% range to the 40% range.

The Human Sciences Research Council survey released in March indicates that voter turnout will be low this year unless interventions are made to encourage people to vote.