It was a good day for the ANC and the DA in municipal by-elections, held on Wednesday, with the two parties both successfully defending seats.
Two by-elections were held in Nelson Mandela Bay, both of which were being defended by the DA. Here the party barely worked up a sweat, winning over 90% in both wards on Wednesday.
In Makhado (Louis Trichardt) the ANC also didn’t have to work too hard to defend a seat, winning 83% of the vote, with the only resistance coming from an independent.
The ANC also successfully defended three seats in the Eastern Cape.
In Mnquma (Butterworth) the ANC won over 95% of the vote, with the UDM being the only party to provide even token resistance. It was a similar story in in Intsika Yethu (Cofimvaba) where the ANC won 85% of the vote in Wednesday’s by-election.
Things were slightly different in the final ward the ANC was defending, in Kou-Kamma, in the western parts of the province. Here the ANC defended the seat, but saw its vote share shrink from the 53% it won in the 2021 local government election, to 46% on Wednesday. The PA was the primary challenger here, seeing its vote share surge from 5% to 33%. The DA also had a fairly poor day, winning 21%, after securing nearly 40% in 2021. This was likely a ward that the DA would have believed it could have taken off the ANC.
Overall it was a good day for South Africa’s two biggest parties, although the result in Kou-Kamma will give the DA some cause for concern, and shows the PA is still drawing support from the party.