The Democratic Alliance has won a long-held ANC ward in Stellenbosch in a by-election, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) confirmed on Thursday.
The IEC said the ANC won 24 of 29 seats in municipal ward by-elections around the country on Wednesday. The DA won four and one went to an independent candidate.
Voter turnout varied between 21,67% and 73,77%, with an average of 38,17%.
Five wards were uncontested. The new councillors all represented the ANC, the IEC said.
IEC results showed that the DA’s Aldridge Rodger Frazenburg won Stellenbosch’s ward one with 63,3% or 1 255 votes.
The ANC’s share of the votes in the ward declined from 48,4% in 2006 to 28,1%.
This seat has been held by the ANC since 1994.
The DA said the results were a message that momentum was with the party ahead of next year’s local government elections.
“Increasingly, people are turning to the DA and rejecting the ANC,” party chief executive Jonathan Moakes said.
“Today’s victory means the DA has won eight seats off the ANC in the last year — seven in the Western Cape and one in Gauteng — a sure sign that the damage the ANC did when it governed the Western Cape runs deep.
ANC candidate Siphiwo Nikani blamed the loss on the Stellenbosch Civic Association splitting the ANC vote.
“They took away votes from us,” he told the Cape Times.
In another by-election in the province on Wednesday, the DA missed taking a seat off the ANC in ward five, Cape Agulhas, by 75 votes.
“It was hectic, but eventually went well with the help of the branch and big support from ANC seniors,” ANC candidate Rasheed Adams said.
“There is so much to do I don’t know where to begin, but I’ll start to address the fishing problems we have here.”
In ward 49, Athlone, Cape Town city, the DA doubled its share of the vote from 45% in 2006 to 92,3%.
In May, the DA won two ANC strongholds in Gugulethu and Caledon.
In July, the DA took a Mitchells Plain-Khayelitsha ward from the ANC and two in Beaufort West from the Independent Civics Organisation of SA.
Of the remaining 24 contested by-elections, 13 took place in the Eastern Cape, two in Gauteng, one in KwaZulu-Natal, two in Limpopo, one in Mpumalanga, and two in the Northern Cape.
In the Eastern Cape, the new nine councillors in the Mbhashe [Idutywa] Municipality all represented the ANC.
In Mnquma [Butterworth] Municipality, the four new councillors also represented the ANC.
The DA won both by-elections in Gauteng — ward five, Emfuleni [Vereeniging], and ward 18, Merafong City [Carletonville] Municipality.
An independent won KwaZulu-Natal’s one by-election in ward four, uMngeni [Howick] Municipality. – Sapa