The City of Johannesburg is South Africa’s largest city and a prime economic centre. It is the biggest metropolitan municipality (and thus, the biggest municipality overall) in the country by population size, with an estimated to be 6.1 million population. Johannesburg is the biggest contributor to Gauteng’s GDP, with a value of R 959 billion in 2021, accounting for 44.15% of the province’s GDP. Thus, these factors make this municipality a strategic municipality for political parties to govern. This has partially influenced the heightened political competition around Johannesburg. As a result, the city has been governed by coalitions since the 2016 local government elections, with the African National Congress (ANC) obtaining 44.5% of the votes (121 seats).
Composition of Council
The City of Johannesburg council has 270 seats, with 18 political parties represented in council. The ANC is a leading party with 91 seats but falls short of the requisite 136 to govern. The DA comes in at number two with 71 seats followed by ActionSA with 44 and the EFF at 29 seats, PA 9, IFP 7, VF PLUS 4, ACDP 3, ALJAMA 3, AIC 2, AHC 1, APC 1, ATM 1, COPE 1, GOOD 1, PAC 1, UDM 1, UIM . The current coalition is made up of ANC, ActionSA, EFF, PA, AIC, IFP and AIC.
