The African National Congress won a by-election in Umtata on Wednesday — the fifth upset victory by the party in the past few weeks — over former Transkei homeland leader General Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement.
In other by-elections on Wednesday, the official opposition Democratic Alliance snatched a municipal ward in Somerset East in the Eastern Cape from the ANC — but lost by a 28-vote margin in a seat on Johannesburg’s East Rand — and the Inkatha Freedom Party lost a previously safe municipal ward in KwaZulu-Natal in an upset victory for the ANC.
The IFP loss occurred in the Big Give False Bay municipality, centred in Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal. The by-election in former KwaZulu homeland leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s IFP heartland was one of nine municipal by-elections held around the country on Wednesday.
In the municipal election of 2000, the IFP gained a comfortable 67,4% of the vote with 1Â 275 votes to the ANC’s 32,5% or 616 votes.
This time the IFP — which held a national conference in Ulundi at the weekend where the party aimed to unite to win the municipal elections in the province expected in early 2006 — won just 703 votes or 45,8% to the ANC’s 831 votes or 54,17%.
The percentage poll was a low 35,9%.
The IFP, however, retained a safe seat — with a reduced majority — in KwaZulu-Natal Umhlabuyalingana municipality with 731 votes or 60,7% in a percentage poll of 39,6%. The ANC polled 39,2% or 472 votes.
In 2000, the IFP won a substantial 988 votes or 84% to the ANC’s 15,2% or 185 votes. This is an indication of ANC growth in the ward — mirroring its recent provincial election victory in the province that now has an ANC premier for the first time since 1994.
DA wins one, loses one
Though the DA loss on the East Rand has not been officially confirmed by the Independent Electoral Commission, I-Net Bridge was told unofficially that the ANC won 2Â 191 votes ahead of the DA’s 2Â 163 while the Freedom Front Plus won 113 votes.
In the 2000 general municipal election, the DA won the seat — ward 46 in Ekurhuleni, the municipality embracing the East Rand — with 12Â 886 votes or 44,9% to the ANC’s 1Â 429 votes or 26,9%. Last time the East Rand Forum’s candidate polled 22,9% — but the forum did not stand this time.
In the Somerset East ward, the DA gained 54,7% or 695 votes to the ANC’s 45,2% or 574 votes in a low 27,9% poll. In 2000 the ANC won this ward with 50,2% or 847 votes to the DA’s 49,7% or 838 votes.
In the East Rand counting at two voting districts was repeated owing to the closeness of the result, a source monitoring the counting said. — I-Net Bridge