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A Town in Political Freefall
Knysna has no mayor. It has no mayoral committee. And right now, it has no clear path forward. The Garden Route town has been plunged into institutional paralysis after a council sitting meant to elect a new mayor collapsed before it even began — a direct consequence of a deepening fracture between the ANC and its historic ally, the South African Communist Party.
The failed meeting on Wednesday exposed just how explosive the relationship between these two political forces has become, with real consequences for ordinary residents who depend on functional local government to deliver basic services. What plays out in Knysna is not an isolated drama — it is a window into the broader fault lines reshaping South African politics ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
What Actually Happened in the Council Chamber
The sitting was convened to elect a successor to Thando Matika, the former mayor who was stripped of his council seat by the ANC for standing as an SACP candidate in the November 4 local government elections. Only nine of the council’s 17 sitting members showed up — two short of the eleven required to reach quorum. Without that threshold, the meeting could not legally proceed.
Council speaker Mark Willemse of the Knysna Independent Movement confirmed that DA councillor Hilton Stroebel, EFF’s Neil Louw, and Richard Kakora of the Patriotic Alliance had requested leave on health grounds. But absences from ANC councillors and coalition partners effectively killed the sitting before any vote could take place. The meeting was adjourned with no new date announced, leaving the town in a leadership vacuum of indefinite duration.
Deputy Mayor Morton Gericke is expected to serve as acting mayor in the interim. Under the law, the municipal manager has 14 days to notify the Independent Electoral Commission, which will then inform the council of the ANC’s replacement candidate before that person is sworn in. Until then, Knysna’s governance hangs in suspension.
The Roots of the Crisis: ANC vs SACP
To understand what is happening in Knysna, you need to understand the bigger political earthquake currently reshaping the South African left. The SACP confirmed earlier this year that it will contest the 2026 local government elections independently — a historic break from its decades-long alliance with the ANC. The party is contesting 204 municipalities nationally in the November elections, a move the ANC has treated as a direct act of political betrayal.
The ANC’s response has been swift and punishing. It has moved to remove councillors affiliated with the SACP not just in Knysna, but across the Western Cape — in Swartland, Drakenstein, the Overberg, and even the City of Cape Town. In Knysna specifically, three councillors — Matika, Khumelwana, and Nohana — were removed because of their SACP affiliation.
ANC regional spokesperson James Sijama made the party’s position unambiguous: “The ANC has therefore formally written to the municipality to request that councillor Matika be removed as an ANC councillor with immediate effect; and that the appropriate legal processes be followed to declare the position vacant and notify the IEC.” The message to anyone considering loyalty to the SACP over the ANC is stark — your seat is not your own.
Democratic Rights or Political Discipline?
Critics of the ANC’s approach argue that removing elected councillors over party affiliation strikes at the heart of democratic representation. The argument is not a small one. When voters in Knysna elected these councillors, they chose individuals to represent their communities — not simply to serve as interchangeable proxies for a party machine.
“The removal of sitting councillors mayor Matika, Khumelwana and Nohana because of their affiliation with the SACP has left Knysna with political instability and weakened representation of its people. It is an attack on democratic representation and an assault on the political rights of communists.” That statement, sharp and unambiguous, captures the tension at the core of this crisis: the collision between party discipline and individual political rights.
South Africa’s floor-crossing rules and anti-defection provisions give parties significant power over the councillors they deploy — but using that power to punish ideological alignment with an allied organisation raises uncomfortable questions about how democratic the system truly is when the party machine decides to flex its muscles.
Knysna’s Fragile Political Landscape
The instability in Knysna did not begin with this crisis. Thando Matika was only elected mayor in February 2025, after the council removed his predecessor Aubrey Tsengwa. Tsengwa then returned to council as the Ward 8 councillor following a June 2025 by-election — only to be shot dead in August. The town has been cycling through political turbulence at a pace that would be difficult for any administration to manage.
The current council composition reflects just how fragmented Knysna’s political landscape has become. Of the 21 seats, eight belong to the DA, three to the ANC, two each to the Knysna Independent Movement and the Patriotic Alliance, and one each to the PBI and EFF — with four seats currently vacant. Governing in this environment requires coalition-building and compromise. The ANC’s aggressive removal of SACP-aligned councillors has made that already difficult task significantly harder.
What This Means for Young South Africans
For young people watching South African politics, Knysna is a case study in how internal party conflicts translate into real-world governance failures. When councils cannot meet quorum, service delivery stalls. When political infighting consumes local government, the people who suffer are residents waiting for housing, clean water, and functioning infrastructure — not the politicians maneuvering for position.
The ANC-SACP split also signals a broader realignment of the South African left that will shape the 2026 elections in ways that are still unfolding. As the SACP builds its independent electoral identity across 204 municipalities, the battles playing out in places like Knysna are early tremors of a much larger political shift. For a generation of voters who have grown up with coalition politics and fragmented party landscapes, understanding these power dynamics is not optional — it is essential.
