The ANC maintains strong support in the by-elections



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The ANC was once again the biggest winner in the municipal by-elections held throughout the country.  Image: Reuters

The ANC was once again the biggest winner in the municipal by-elections held throughout the country. Image: Reuters

POLITICS


The ANC was once again the biggest winner in by-elections held across the country on Wednesday. Of the 24 neighborhoods that were at stake, the group took 17 neighborhoods.

The ruling party retained 12 districts and managed to claim five new districts, mostly from the Better Residents Association (BRA), formerly known as the Bushbuckridge Residents Association. It only lost one district in the Western Cape to the Gcobani Ndzongana Land Party, formed in 2018.

This strong performance by the ANC comes after another dominant performance in last month’s 95-district by-elections in which the ANC won 70 districts.

READ: The district attorney was the biggest loser in this week’s by-elections.

The ANC’s greatest achievement was reclaiming three wards from this week’s biggest losers, the BRA, which was formed in 2011 by disgruntled former ANC members who felt marginalized.

Its leader, Delta Mokoena, is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted of vigilantism in 2013. Since his arrest, the party has lost popularity and this week the ANC capitalized on it, regaining the three seats it had lost to it. dissident party.

ANC’s Matthews Mangani won District 8 in the local Bushbuckridge municipality which it had lost to the BRA in the 2016 municipal elections. It was a resounding victory for Mangani, who obtained 71.85% of the vote to 58 11% that put the BRA in power.

Grinios Sebatane of the ANC won the 18th district, also in Bushbuckridge, with a solid performance of 84.45% compared to the 53.51% won by the BRA four years ago. Selby Malatsie, from the 32nd district of the same municipality, won it for the ANC with a much smaller margin of 68.27%.

READ: ANC v ANC | Supra holders of electoral events in competition

The only blemish for the ANC came in the Western Cape, where the party lost Ward 12 in the local Overstrand municipality in Hermanus to Earth Party’s Michael Mhana. Mhana received a meager 56.15% compared to 88.69% that saw the ANC win the district in 2016.

The DA performed decently in the last round of by-elections, as the party retained six districts, losing only two.

The by-elections registered a low electoral turnout of 34.5%.


Juniour Khumalo

Political journalist

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