DURBAN, Monday 31 August 2026 — The Democratic Alliance has unveiled candidates for all 112 wards in eThekwini, replacing a majority of its existing ward representatives as the party prepares for an increasingly competitive four-way battle for control of KwaZulu-Natal’s largest municipality.
DA KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Dean Macpherson said 65% of the party’s ward candidates are new, while 35% of its current ward councillors will return as candidates.
The scale of the turnover makes Monday’s announcement more than the routine publication of an election list.
It represents a substantial restructuring of the DA’s frontline political team in a metro the party believes it can take from the current ANC-led administration on 4 November.
The candidates will campaign alongside DA eThekwini mayoral candidate Haniff Hoosen.
Hoosen said the party had made “bold decisions” during candidate selection and had consulted residents, civic organisations and communities before finalising the slate.
According to the DA, the new candidates include people with backgrounds in law, finance, project management, business, faith organisations, civil society and community activism.
The party also confirmed that some candidates had previously belonged to other political parties.
It did not identify all of those candidates in Monday’s announcement.
The candidate overhaul follows several recent defections to the DA in eThekwini.
ANC councillors Marco Mbambo, from Ward 8, and David Ngubane, from Ward 16, recently joined the DA after having been elected as ANC councillors in 2021.
The DA has also claimed an influx of several hundred former ANC members in parts of the metro, including Mariannhill, KwaNdengezi and Newlands. Those membership figures are party claims and have not been independently verified.
Monday’s announcement comes on a particularly significant day in the eThekwini election campaign.
The Inkatha Freedom Party separately announced Deputy Transport Minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa as its candidate for mayor.
The IFP also named businessman and taxi-industry figure Sizwe “Mavava” Sikhakhane as its deputy mayoral candidate.
That means two major opposition parties have now made significant eThekwini campaign moves on the same day.
The metro is likely to be one of the most unpredictable contests in the 2026 local government elections.
The ANC lost its outright majority in eThekwini in 2021, forcing the municipality into coalition politics.
The electoral landscape has changed substantially since then.
The MK Party emerged as the largest party in KwaZulu-Natal in the 2024 provincial election, while the ANC, IFP and DA subsequently entered a provincial Government of Provincial Unity.
Those parties cooperate in provincial government but will compete against one another for control of eThekwini in November.
The DA argues that its position has strengthened considerably.
It finished second in eThekwini in the 2024 national and provincial election vote within the metro, ahead of the ANC, although municipal elections involve different candidates, turnout patterns and voting considerations.
The DA has consequently treated eThekwini as one of its principal expansion opportunities outside the Western Cape.
Its decision to replace nearly two-thirds of its ward candidate cohort indicates that it does not intend to approach the election using substantially the same local political team that contested the previous municipal term.
The party said community feedback influenced those decisions.
“Where residents told us that change was necessary, we listened and acted,” Hoosen said in the DA’s statement.
The 2026 election will also be fought across a slightly different municipal map.
eThekwini currently has 111 wards but will have 112 wards for the November election following the Municipal Demarcation Board’s boundary process.
That makes Monday’s DA announcement a complete slate for the newly configured metro.
Ward contests will be particularly important if no party wins an outright majority.
Half of municipal council seats are determined through ward contests and the remainder through proportional representation, meaning changes in a relatively small number of competitive wards can materially alter the eventual balance of power.
The DA’s announcement also highlights the increasingly crowded contest facing the ANC.
The MK Party enters its first municipal election after its breakthrough in KwaZulu-Natal in 2024.
The IFP has now deployed one of its most prominent national politicians to contest the mayoralty.
The DA has selected Hoosen and substantially refreshed its ward slate.
The ANC, meanwhile, has not yet announced its final mayoral candidate for eThekwini.
The party said earlier this month that successful mayoral candidates would be announced during September rather than alongside its national manifesto.
Candidate verification by the Electoral Commission of South Africa remains the next formal stage after political parties submitted nominations by the 28 August deadline.
For the DA, the immediate question will be whether replacing 65% of its ward candidates helps the party expand beyond its existing support base.
For eThekwini more broadly, Monday’s competing announcements from the DA and IFP provide an early indication of the intensity of a metro contest in which the ANC, DA, IFP and MK Party could all influence who governs after 4 November.
