Pretoria – The Democratic Alliance snatched majority party status in the Tshwane metropolitan municipality with 43.10 percent of the vote, beating the African National Congress which got 41.48 as the tallying of Tshwane votes ended on Saturday.
Tshwane was the third metro with a DA majority after the Eastern Cape’s Nelson Mandela Bay and the Western Cape’s City of Cape Town.
The metro experienced mayhem in the run up to the elections when residents embarked on violent protests against Thoko Didiza’s mayoral candidacy. Residents of Atteridgeville, Mamelodi, Soshanguve, and Hammanskraal said Didiza was not known in Tshwane and had been catapulted by the ANC leadership over incumbent mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa and his regional deputy chairman Mapiti Matsena.
The DA has 93 seats in Tshwane, the ANC got 89, while the Economic Freedom Fighters won 25 in the country’s administrative capital. The DA will have to form a coalition with another political party in Tshwane in order to govern.
African News Agency