Local government elections · 04 Nov 2026
Every party, candidate and coalition argument as it airs across the talk stations we monitor — with the audio behind each one. This page counts coverage: how often something is said on air. It is not a poll, a forecast, or a measure of support.
Mentions of each party across the 14 days of broadcast we monitor. This is airtime, not support — how often a party is talked about, not how anyone intends to vote. Tone is an AI reading of the coverage, not of the party.
Not heard at all in this window: Rise Mzansi, ACDP, UDM, Al Jama-ah, ATM, COPE. These parties are contesting the election; the stations we monitor simply did not mention them. That is a finding about the coverage, not about the parties.
Last heard: ANC 31 Aug · DA 31 Aug · EFF 31 Aug
The four metros our stations actually cover. Candidates are listed alphabetically, never by how much airtime they get — a mention count measures coverage, not standing. eThekwini, Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City and Mangaung reach us only through national bulletins.
Latest on air
Also standing, but never yet named on the stations we monitor: Nthabiseng Tshivenga (EFF), Xolani Khumalo (ActionSA).
Also standing, but never yet named on the stations we monitor: Nontando Nolutshungo (EFF), Dereleen James (ActionSA).
Press play — no account, no paywall. Every clip is the broadcast itself, cut to the moment.
117sCOSATU says it remains committed to the alliance while unions debate whether to support the ANC or SACP at the polls.
76sThe ANC says three Western Cape councillors switched allegiances after the SACP chose to contest the local elections independently.
120sThe IFP names Kulevo Sengwa for eThekwini as the party weighs its role in future coalition outcomes and presents his governing vision.
45sA POWER Talk discussion considers whether a single SACP seat could influence municipal decisions after the local elections.
55sJP Smith says the DA is threatening legal action against councillors appearing on more than one party nomination list.
62sThe SACP says it has submitted 4,418 ward candidates, including community activists who are not party members.
Falsifiable calls about this election, captured as they were said. They are graded once the IEC has declared — never against a partial count.
“But we expect all the nominated candidates, and you are correct, in some cases it's a big list, but we wanted to allow communities because we involved communities, we needed to allow that.”
A guest · Power FM · POWER Breakfast · 26 Aug 2026
“Come around the 16th of September, we will then certify the list of candidates and say these are the candidates and political parties that will be contesting the different elections.”
Josi Tzile · SAfm · The National Briefing · 27 Aug 2026
“Africa, we expect on this occasion more than 100,000 candidates. In a similar election in 2021, we had no fewer than 95,000 candidates. So, on this occasion, our anticipation is that that number will increase.”
Sai Mamabolo · 702 · Early Breakfast · 27 Aug 2026
No odds, nothing to wager on.
Party and IEC messages our ad classifier heard over the last 28 days. These are airings, not spend. ICASA-allocated free party election broadcasts and paid advertising sound the same on air, so this cannot separate them — and a party absent here may simply be advertising somewhere we do not listen.
84 party airings in total. Every advertiser on air — including who runs beside election coverage.
Election stories moving across more than one station in the last three days.
Standing alerts that email you when something matching airs. Each link opens the alert form already filled in — edit anything before you save it.
Airtime is not support. Every count here measures how often something was said on the English-language talk stations we monitor over the last 14 days. It is not a poll, a projection, or a measure of how anyone intends to vote, and nothing on this page should be read as a forecast of the result.
We monitor four stations. 702 and Power FM (Gauteng), Cape Talk (Western Cape) and SAfm (national). Coverage of Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Cape Town is therefore much denser than of the other four metros, and a party or candidate absent from this page may simply not have been discussed on these stations.
Names come from speech recognition. Transcripts are machine-generated, and South African names are where they fail most. We correct the spellings we know about at ingest, but a candidate whose name is consistently mis-heard will be under-counted until we catch it. Everything is quoted “as heard on air”.
Tone is a machine reading of the coverage, not a verdict on a party, and allegations reported on air are attributed to whoever made them — never asserted here as fact.
Something wrong? Tell us and we will correct it. Updated 31 Aug, 13:54 SAST.