The Nongoma Local Municipality council consists of forty-two members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Twenty-one councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in twenty-one wards, while the remaining twenty-one are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 3 August 2016 the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) won a majority of twenty-two seats on the council. The party lost its majority in the election of 1 November 2021, obtaining a plurality of twenty-one seats.