It was safe to assume the DA’s Patricia de Lille was Cape Town’s new mayor, provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson said on Friday evening.
This was despite a recount of votes, still under way at the Independent Electoral Commission’s warehouse in the city on Thursday evening.
Speaking at the IEC’s final media briefing, he said the recount was the result of an IEC official in Khayelitsha failing to hand in voting district results slips.
Before the counting was stopped, 98,5% of the votes had been tallied. These showed the Democratic Alliance had secured 62% of the vote in the metro, and the African National Congress just under 32%.
“At this point, I think we can safely assume that Patricia de Lille will be the new mayor of Cape Town,” Sampson said.
Responding to a question, he said he was convinced the official’s failure to hand in the slip “was not malicious”.
It was “just a case of gross negligence”, and was being investigated by the police. A recount was the “cleanest way” of dealing with the matter.
On when the final count would be available, Sampson would not say.
“I’m not going to tell you it’s tonight or tomorrow.”
An official said the IEC would issue a detailed final results statement “in the next 24 hours”.
De Lille, who was at the IEC centre, thanked the citizens of Cape Town for their support.
The DA would use its outright majority in the metro “to build and make a great city even greater”.
She said the party had almost secured a two-thirds majority, but vowed this “does not mean we will exclude other political parties”.
‘We are the future’
Meanwhile, President Jacob Zuma started off the ANC’s election victory celebrations on Thursday by thanking supporters “for a job well done” — and having a dig at the party’s critics.
“Analysts had predicted that the ANC would not make it … we have proved that we are in charge … that we have better policies, programmes to change your quality of life,” Zuma said to a cheering crowd in central Johannesburg.
“Thank you for a job well done,” he said.
Zuma said that these elections were more competitive than those before because even small parties were expecting to win wards.
“The ANC had proved that it is the only party that could change the lives of the people for better,” he said.
“This election has shown that the ANC, which is turning 100 next year, is the oldest but still going strong. We are the future of the country.”
He added that people had voted for an organisation they knew and trusted.
About 2Â 000 people braved the cold in downtown Johannesburg for the ANC’s celebration party on Friday evening. – Sapa