Fourteen by-elections were held on Wednesday. It was a good day for the African National Congress (ANC), which defended ten seats and won two, one off the Democratic Alliance (DA) and another off Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
The DA and the IFP each defended one seat.
In Knysna the ANC snatched a seat from the DA. ANC candidate Lorraine Opperman was the former DA representative for Ward 11, but was expelled from the party for voting with the ANC on the Knysna municipal council. Standing as an ANC candidate, she won 49% of the vote against the DA’s 34%. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) managed 12% and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) 5%.
The other ward that the ANC grabbed from the opposition was in Maphumulo, in central KwaZulu-Natal, which the IFP lost in a tight race, the ANC winning 47.6% of the vote against the IFP’s 46.2%.
The IFP successfully defended a ward in KwaDukuza, also in KwaZulu-Natal, with 38.6% of the vote, most of the rest of the vote being split primarily between the ANC and an independent, Aubrey Baardman, who is also the former IFP representative for the ward.
In Cape Town the DA successfully defended Ward 20. However, the Cape Coloured Congress (CCC) gave a good showing of itself, winning nearly 20% of the vote in the ward. The DA secured just over 50% (against 62% in the 2016 municipal election). The ANC won 16%, a drop from 30%, with the EFF managing 13%, a growth of ten percentage points.
Although the EFF did not win any wards, it had a good showing in a number of the wards successfully defended by the ANC, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal. In addition, in a Beaufort West ward successfully defended by the ANC, the Patriotic Alliance (PA) won nearly a quarter of the vote.
The EFF’s growth in urban areas outside its strongholds in the north of the country will be a trend to watch, as will the growth of smaller parties among coloured voters, such as the CCC and PA.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced earlier this week that the 2021 municipal election will be held on Wednesday, 27 October.
[Image: Radoan Tanvir from Pixabay]