By-election outcomes signal tough battle ahead - analyst

Picture: Courtney Africa/African News Agency (ANA)

Picture: Courtney Africa/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Dec 11, 2020

Share

This week’s by-elections outcomes, which saw the ANC snatching two DA wards in Oudtshoorn, proves there’s a tough battle ahead for political parties in the upcoming 2021 Local Government Elections.

This is according to political analyst Keith Gottschalk, who said voters can look forward to many contestation during tnext year’s elections.

By-elections were held in six wards in the Western Cape on Wednesday.

The DA retained one of its seats in the Oudtshoorn municipality and the Langeberg municipality with an additional seat in the City of Cape Town, while the ANC snatched two DA wards in the Oudtshoorn municipality . The ANC lost a seat to the Land Party in the Overstrand municipality.

“It is interesting that in this round of by-elections the ANC made a net gain of four councillors, and the DA a net loss of two. However, zooming in, three of four net gains by the ANC reflect it winning back seats from a local organisation, the Better Residents' Association in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga. So this shows mostly that local situation,” he said

Gottschalk said the DA held its own in the Ekurhuleni and Cape Town metros.

“In the Overberg municipality, the Land Party won ward 12 from the ANC. The Land Party is a local organisation representing squatters and landless township residents, who feel the ANC does not do enough for their plight. In the forever volatile politics of Oudtshoorn,” he said

ANC provincial coordinator Ronalda Nalumango said the party continued to grow in the Western Cape.

“We are also grateful to our volunteers and those voters who entrusted their ballots to us. The results of Wednesday’s by-elections mean that the DA has 12 seats out of 25. Pushing the DA down from its majority is a major achievement. It is proof that the DA can be beaten, and in fact, is continuing to decline. Oudtshoorn is an encouragement for next year’s Local Government Elections,” Nalumango said.

DA MP Siviwe Gwarube said the DA was making significant inroads into ANC strongholds.

“In yesterday's (Wednesday’s) elections, the DA retained 6 out of 8 DA wards receiving an average vote of 68% in the wards that we held. We obtained thumping majorities in the City of Cape Town (Ward 115) at 82.30% and eThekwini (Ward 66) at 85.03% of votes cast. In the Western Cape, in Ward 115 in the City of Cape Town, DA support grew showing a 12.68 percentage point increase,” Gwarube said.

Land Party chief leader Gcobani Ndzongana said ANC councillors had failed the community of the Overstrand.

“The ANC councillors had been using their positions to rubber stamp punitive policies and by-laws. The Land Party will use Ward 12 as a benchmark for good, caring governance and its councillor will never impose projects that are not going to benefit the community or that the community has not agreed to,” Ndzongana said.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said the last round of by-elections were “successful".

Related Topics:

Elections