Mahikeng - The ANC in the North West has been bruised by its own dissidents despite retaining control of two of its stronghold municipalities.
A group of disgruntled former ANC members who formed the Forum 4 Service Delivery have hurt the ruling party and accounted for large declines in ANC support in some areas of the province.
In Mamusa local municipality, in Schweizer - Reineke, the ANC retained control of the council but after a 20 percentage point drop compared to 2011.
The largest share of the lost ANC votes went to the Forum which leapt ahead of the EFF to claim three seats in the council, with 16% of the votes.
Provisional results showed the ANC received nearly 2 000 votes against more than 5 000 which went to the Forum and over 400 for the EFF.
In Lekwa Teemane, the ANC remained in charge with 10 seats but again the Forum hurt the ruling party by taking 80% of votes lost by the ANC.
According to the provisional IEC results, the ruling party won by 62.7% of the vote, a marked decline from 71.7% in 2011.
The DA received 15% of the vote, while the EFF and Forum got 8 percent each. More than 23 000 voters were registered in the area in for the municipal elections with over 16 000 votes cast for the ANC.
Both Lekwa Teemane and Mamusa local councils are located in the Ruth Mompati region of the North West.
The ANC has now retained a total of five local councils in the North West, the latest declared including Mafikeng, won by 61%, Maquassi Hills by 64% and Naledi in Vryburg by 63%.
But in all the municipalities retained so far, the party's support has declined from the previous local government elections.
Election Bureau