Half of the seats (rounded up for odd numbers) in each municipality are elected on the first past the post system in single member wards.

[3] The ruling party of South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC), has been facing a growing opposition from the Democratic Alliance (DA).

[4] The ANC faced tough challenges from the opposition parties over issues of service delivery, corruption, healthcare reform, poverty and unemployment rates.

[5] Former DA leader Helen Zille attempted to improve her party's success at multi-party governance in Cape Town and also bring the ANC's support under 50% in other major cities.

Initial reports suggested that Port Elizabeth was the most vulnerable for the ANC, with Pretoria, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and almost all municipalities in the Northern Cape facing stiff challenges from the DA and COPE.

Port Elizabeth lies in a unique region roughly at the border between the Black and Coloured (i.e. mixed raced) population groups.

[7] There were vote boycott campaigns by a number of civil society organisations including Soundz of the South, the Mandela Park Backyarders, the Mitchell's Plain Backyarders Association and various communities such as Blikkiesdorp in Western Cape, Morutsi in Limpopo, King William's Town and Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, Cato Ridge in KwaZulu-Natal, Ermelo in Mpumalanga and elsewhere around the country.

"PR" column indicates proportional representation votes cast for parties in the election of local and metropolitan municipal councils.

"DC" column indicate proportional representation votes cast for parties for the directly elected components of district councils.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro was closely contested however, with the ANC dropping 15% of the vote, but retaining a narrow majority.

The ANC's control in this province was challenged only in the thinly populated Afrikaans speaking Karoo areas adjoining the DA dominated Western Cape.