On 4 November 2026, South Africa elects its municipal councils. Every ward councillor in this country can be an independent — no party membership, no party permission, no party required. This movement exists to put an ordinary resident on the ballot in every ward, and to convince you that's the best vote you'll ever cast.
Counting down to: final voter registration weekend closes · ConfirmedIf you want to stand, this deadline is yours. You can only be a ward candidate if you're a registered voter in your municipality — and the voters' roll closes without further notice the day the election date is proclaimed. 1–2 August is the last guaranteed in-person chance.
Candidate nomination deadline: not yet set. It starts the day the election date is proclaimed — expected after the 1–2 August registration weekend — and the window historically runs only a few weeks. Sign up below and we'll send you the deadline the moment the IEC confirms it.
Go on. Mark the ✕. See how that feels.
You do not need a party. You do not need a manifesto committee, a membership card, or anyone's blessing. You need 50 neighbours and eighteen hundred rand. The system was built for you to use it — parties would just prefer you didn't know.
This isn't about any one party being bad. It's about what every party councillor has in common: three structural reasons your street will never come first.
Party candidates are picked by internal list committees and branch processes — not by you. Their career depends on pleasing the people who compile the list. You've never met those people. Those people have never seen your road.
In council, party councillors vote how the caucus instructs — on budgets, on tariffs, on which wards get fixed first. If your ward's interest clashes with the party line, the party line wins. Every time. Defying the party whip ends careers.
Hung councils turn service delivery into a bargaining chip. Mayors rotate, motions of no confidence fly, and your pothole waits while grown adults trade committee chairs. An independent's vote answers to the ward, not to a head office.
An independent ward councillor has exactly one boss: the people who can vote them out. That is the entire theory of this movement. Accountability isn't a value you campaign on — it's a structure you build.
You must be nominated and submit these documents during the candidate nomination period in the official election timetable. Your nominator must be a registered voter who ordinarily resides in the ward. Here is the full list — no hidden levels.
A registered voter in your ward nominates you on the official form published before the election.
You accept, undertake to be bound by the Electoral Code of Conduct, and declare you're not disqualified from standing.
The page showing your photo, name and ID number.
Names, surnames, ID numbers and signatures of at least fifty voters registered in any voting district of your ward. Fifty conversations with your own neighbours. If you can't find fifty, you've learned something too.
Refundable if you win at least 10% of the votes in the ward.
This is the face that goes on the ballot. Smile like someone who answers their phone.
Verify everything at the source: IEC — Independent ward candidates · How to contest municipal elections. Deadlines follow the official election timetable published once the date is proclaimed. This site is a civic project and is not affiliated with the Electoral Commission.
"Independent" alone isn't a qualification — plenty of chancers run alone too. Candidates who stand with this movement sign five public commitments. Voters hold the receipt.
A public meeting every month, in the ward, at a time working people can attend. What was raised, what was done, what is stuck, and who is responsible for it being stuck — with names.
How I voted and why, in plain language, within seven days of every council sitting. No caucus secrecy — because there's no caucus.
No one-way announcement groups. One open channel where every issue is logged and answered within 48 hours — visible to the whole ward. Councillors prefer private messages because private promises are cheap. Everything I answer, I answer where you can all check it.
On coalition support, budget votes and major ward decisions, I consult the ward first through open meetings — and my vote follows the ward, not my mood.
If I join a party, the law removes me and the ward votes again — as it should. But I pledge past the law: no party membership, no standing party arrangement, no council position traded for my vote. If I ever want a party's colours, I resign first and ask for your vote under that flag.
The pledge is a public document each candidate signs and publishes. Breaking it doesn't trigger a lawyer — it triggers your neighbours. That has always been the stronger enforcement mechanism.
if you're the person who
What you don't need
The candidate's campaign is their own — and the answer isn't "no money," it's "no hidden money." Most candidates fund themselves; the whole campaign can cost little more than the R1,800 deposit. Better still is when the ward funds its own candidate — neighbours chipping in, a residents' association covering the deposit, a street collection that hires the hall and the PA for a ward meeting. That's not a loophole; that's the model working. Money from the people you answer to keeps you answering to them.
What has no place here is party money. A candidate bankrolled by a party isn't an independent; they're a party candidate who skipped the branding.
Register your interest as a prospective independent candidate. You'll get the step-by-step nomination guide, official IEC registration forms, the Ward Pledge, campaign templates, connection to other independents near you — and every official date and deadline the moment the Electoral Commission confirms it. Deciding to explore is not committing to run.
Register as a candidate →Join as a supporter in your ward. Be one of the fifty signatures, volunteer on a campaign, host a report-back, or just get the guide for talking a good neighbour into standing.
Join as a supporter →We ask only for your name, email and ward. No ID numbers online. Your details are never sold, shared or shown to any political party — see the privacy note in the footer.