In one of the most dramatic moments of the 2026 Local Government Elections, ActionSA has won Ward 5 in the Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality — not at the ballot box, but with the toss of a coin.
Following a recount, ActionSA candidate Welcome Khoza and ANC candidate Mpho Rampyapedi were tied on exactly 630 votes each.
With no winner emerging from the count, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) resolved the deadlock in accordance with Section 8 of Schedule 1 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 1998, which provides for the drawing of lots when candidates are tied.
Both candidates had agreed in advance to accept the outcome of the coin toss.
Khoza called it correctly and won the ward for ActionSA.
The result marks a change for the ANC in a ward it has historically held and underlines just how closely contested the 2026 elections have been in Limpopo, where several municipalities are heading for hung councils.
ActionSA has hailed the victory as proof that every single vote counts — in Namakgale, it literally came down to heads or tails.
It is not the first time the ANC has lost power following a coin toss. In 2021, the party cried foul and launched a court bid after losing a coin toss to the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Modimolle-Mookgophong Local Municipality in Limpopo.
The toss, conducted using a R1 coin, resulted in the re-election of the late DA councillor Marlene van Staden as mayor. It remains unclear what grounds the ANC intended to pursue in its court bid, as the party’s national leadership subsequently instructed its Limpopo provincial leadership to abandon the case.
Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape has objected to a coin toss conducted by the IEC in relation to Ward 15. The party is demanding a recount of the votes in the ward.
The process has since been temporarily suspended following the objection by the EFF, commonly known as the Red Berets.
The SABC quoted EFF representative Mziyanda Hlekiso as saying:
“Can you please stop this toss thing? And go and recount the ballots because this one is not going to help us. It’s the last thing, this thing of toss. Let’s go and recount, and then we will take it from there. We can recount the spoilt ballot papers; we are still fine. The toss is the last thing.”