Kimberley - While the ANC has maintained its title as ruling party in the Sol Plaatje City Council, support for the party dropped slightly in this week's local government elections.
The party obtained 57.73 percent of the votes - down from 63.5 percent in the 2011 elections. The ANC will now occupy 38 of the 66 available seats in the council chambers.
Coming in as the majority party, the ANC will appoint an Executive Mayor for Kimberley, although a candidate for the position is only expected to be announced at a later date.
The party notched more than 80 percent of the votes in a total of nine wards in the city, its biggest support base at 85.13 percent coming from Ward 16 in Tswelelang.
The DA remained the official opposition in the Sol Plaatje City Council and increased its support base marginally by around three percentage points from 26.3 percent in 2011 to 29.56 percent. This will see the number of seats going to the party increasing from 16 to 19 when the new council meets for the first time.
The party obtained a clear majority in a total of eight wards, including Ward 1 in Roodepan, where it narrowly took the majority with 52.58 percent of the votes, as well as Ward 14 in Squarehill Park and Colville.
The party continued to draw on its support base in the traditional white wards, including New Park (Ward 20), Herlear (Ward 21), Monument Heights (Ward 23), Carters Glen (Ward 24) and Beaconsfield (Ward 25).
It also took the majority of votes in Ward 22 (Greenpoint) although it did not get an outright 50 percent majority. Here the DA obtained 47.8 percent of the votes, with the ANC obtaining 42.01 percent. The new kid on the block, the EFF, obtained 7.49 percent of the votes and although it did not win any of the wards outright, it will occupy five PR (proportional representative) seats in the council.
Cope, which previously held five seats, dropped its support base from 7.7 percent to 1.54 percent.
Both Cope and the Freedom Front Plus will each hold one PR seat in council with the FF Plus obtaining 1.14 percent of the votes.
The remaining parties that contested the elections, namely the ACDP (which previously held one seat) and Azapo, did not get any seats.
Support for the ACDP halved from 1.2 percent to 0.67 percent in Wednesday's elections, while Azapo trailed with 0.34 percent of the votes.
Only one independent candidate, Norman Hammer, achieved sufficient votes to obtain a seat on council. Standing in Ward 27 (Ritchie), he obtained 25.87 percent. The ward was won by the ANC with 50.04 percent of the votes.
In Ward 29, where residents from informal settlements threatened to boycott the elections, the ANC won with a majority of 64.11 percent.
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