Three by-elections were held on Wednesday. The Democratic Alliance (DA) was the incumbent in all three wards, and managed to defend two of the wards. The ward it lost went to the African National Congress (ANC), but it lost support in the two wards that it retained.
The two wards it defended were in Cape Town while the ward it lost was in Matzikama (Vredendal) in the Western Cape.
The ward it lost was a fairly marginal ward, with the DA winning it with just under 50% of the vote in 2016. The ANC won 36% of the vote in that year. However, in the by-election the numbers were effectively reversed, with the ANC winning 51% and the DA 39%. The ANC is now the biggest party on the 15-seat municipal council. Although the DA won eight seats in the 2016 municipal elections, it has now lost two seats to the ANC in by-elections. The DA now has six seats on the council, and the ANC seven. The ANC will probably govern with either the United Democrats (a local party) or the Economic Freedom Fighters. Each party has one seat on the municipal council.
In Cape Town the DA retained both the wards it defended, but lost ground in both. In Ward 19, near Kuils River, the party saw its vote share drop from nearly two-thirds to just under 50%. Patricia de Lille’s GOOD Party won 21% and the ANC 16% (compared to 24% in 2016). The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) also performed admirably, winning nearly 10% of the vote.
In Ward 82 on Mitchells Plain something similar happened. The DA saw its vote share drop by 20 percentage points compared to 2016 (from 84% to 64%) with GOOD coming second with 13%. The ACDP did well here too, with 12% of the vote.
The DA will again be concerned by the loss of support it suffered. Although it is highly unlikely to lose control of Cape Town in the next local government elections, it could see its majority reduced significantly.