The local polls were widely seen a turning point in the political landscape of South Africa, as the dominance of the ANC was greatly diminished while coalition and minority governments became more widespread.

[9] The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has been the majority party in most municipalities across South Africa, with the exception of those in the Western Cape, since 1994.

Its overall share of the vote decreased slightly from 65.7% in 2006 to 62.93% in 2011 amid growing discontent regarding the state of the country's economy and perceived corruption within the organisation since the end of apartheid.

The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) increased its total share of the vote from 16.3% in 2006 to 24.1% in 2011, while assuming control of most Western Cape councils.

The party contested an election for the first time under the leadership of Mmusi Maimane, who succeeded Helen Zille as leader in May 2015.

[11] The newly formed Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, contested its first municipal election since its formation in 2013.

[13] The party had support in areas where the IFP had been strong, and prior to the election governed a number of municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal in coalition with the African National Congress.

The NFP was, however, allowed to contest the election in one municipality, Nquthu, where its local branch had paid the registration fee on time.

[16] The top three issues of the election were the constantly high unemployment rate, corruption and poor service delivery by government.

[17] A major campaign issue during the election was corruption within the ANC, in particular President Jacob Zuma's relationship with the Gupta family[18] and funding for the construction of his homestead at Nkandla.

[19] The ANC was accused by commentators and the DA[20] of trying to make racism a key electoral issue by racialising the election.

[25] In January 2017 the ANC was taken to court by a South African public relations expert (Sihle Bolani) for work done during the elections, Bolani stated that the ANC used her to launch and run a covert R50 million fake news and disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting opposition parties during the election.

[34] On April 13, 2015, the Democratic Alliance selected former DA Parliamentary Leader Athol Trollip as its mayoral candidate.

[37] The Democratic Alliance selected businessman Herman Mashaba over Wits professor and DA councillor Rabelani Dagada as its mayoral candidate on January 16, 2016.

[40] On 5 September 2015 the Democratic Alliance selected MPL Solly Msimanga over 2011 mayoral candidate Brandon Topham and councillor Bronwyn Engelbrecht.

Due in large part to the lack of substantial DA support across the province, the EFF was able to become the main opposition to the ANC in four of the seventeen municipalities.