DA loosens its grip in Cape Town

Geordin Hill-Lewis is to become new mayor of Cape Town after the DA retained the metro with a reduced majority. Picture Armand Hough/African News Agency (ANA)

Geordin Hill-Lewis is to become new mayor of Cape Town after the DA retained the metro with a reduced majority. Picture Armand Hough/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Nov 5, 2021

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The DA’s support in the Cape Town metro has been slashed after the elections with the party now running the city with a reduced majority.

This was after its support was cut from 66.7% in the 2016 local government elections to 58.22% after this year’s vote.

After the election results were announced by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), the DA will run the metro without any coalition.

This is one of three metros where a coalition is not needed.

The others are run by the ANC in Buffalo City and Mangaung. The ANC also sneaked in there and shed support in Mangaung and Buffalo City.

The Good Party said the drop in support for the DA in the City of Cape Town showed it was losing some political ground.

Good secretary-general Brett Herron said the fact that the DA was not able to grow its support and instead shed almost 8% of the vote was an indication it was loosening its grip.

He said the emergence of other parties had shifted the political sands in Cape Town.

The DA won the City of Cape Town by 58.22%. The support for the DA in 2016 was 66.7%.

Herron said the emergence of new parties had dislodged both the DA and the ANC.

“But not in South Africa, where an unprecedented number of newer and/or smaller entities, arrogantly dismissed by some as non-entities, combined to give both the ANC and the DA bloody noses in the local government elections – including in the City of Cape Town where the DA majority was slashed by 8%,” said Herron.

Herron was the Good Party’s mayoral candidate in Cape Town.

The DA is also talking to the Freedom Front Plus to get into coalition in some of the hung municipalities in the Western Cape.

The DA is leading in some of the 15 hung municipalities.

The ANC is looking to strike a deal with other parties in the Western Cape to form councils in the hung municipalities.

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