The Democratic Alliance won a narrow victory in a key municipal by-election contest in the Western Cape town of Swellendam on Wednesday — pipping the African National Congress by 65 votes.
The DA’s Ella “Charli” Fourie won 572 votes to the ANC’s 507 with the New National Party trailing with 298 votes. The Pan Africanist Congress gained just 27 votes.
The by-election is seen as an important barometer of electoral support for the three main parties in the Western Cape — the ANC, the DA and the NNP — ahead of next year’s provincial election.
The by-election was caused by the death of a councillor who had defected from the DA to the NNP. The election was viewed by the DA as an important test of whether
they could emerge as the main force against the ANC in the province.
DA provincial leader Theuns Botha described the result as “a Waterloo” for the NNP.
ANC campaign manager Cameron Dugmore said the ANC had improved its vote substantially from the municipal election in 2000 and he predicted that the ANC
would win the seat in the 2005 municipal poll.
NNP campaign manager Ludwig Anderson — who had predicted victory for his party before the poll — referred queries to his party’s media office.
NNP representative Cobus Dowry said the by-election was disappointing for his
party it was a good basis around which the NNP could consolidate — following its
withdrawal from the Democratic Alliance 15 months ago. He accused the DA of using the tactics of the old rightwing Conservative Party — of using “swart gevaar” (black threat) tactics with photographs of a murdered farmer in Zimbabwe. This was not only irresponsible but dangerous for the country as it undermined cooperation in the land, he said.
Dugmore said the New National Party should be proud of the manner in which they conducted their campaign without resorting to the swart gevaar tactics of the DA. Botha said his party had not conducted an anti-black campaign.
The focus on Zimbabwe involved human rights abuses which affected black people
more than whites. DA leader Tony Leon is expected to hold a victory news conference on Thursday afternoon.
In the 2000 municipal election the DA got 61.8% of the vote (860 votes), the ANC 28.4% (396 votes) and the PAC 6.4% (90 votes). – I-Net Bridge