PM LIVE BLOG: DA retains Midvaal in Gauteng, with increased majority

FILE – DA retains Midvaal municipality with an increased majority. Midvaal's Mayor Bongani Baloyi, address Midvaal Manifesto Launch at Sicelo Stadium. File photo: Itumeleng English/African News Agency(ANA)

FILE – DA retains Midvaal municipality with an increased majority. Midvaal's Mayor Bongani Baloyi, address Midvaal Manifesto Launch at Sicelo Stadium. File photo: Itumeleng English/African News Agency(ANA)

Published Nov 2, 2021

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Rustenburg – The DA is happy to retain Midvaal Municipality, in Gauteng, with a growing majority, said party leader John Steenhuisen on Tuesday.

“The DA now governs municipalities with outright majorities in three provinces other than the Western Cape. And, in two of those provinces, these municipalities are ranked as the best performing in the province. It is surely only a matter of time before uMngeni joins Midvaal and Kouga on that list,” he said.

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Maimane hits back at Steenhuisen over dwindling support blame

Cape Town – Former DA leader and current One SA movement leader Mmusi Maimane has hit back at his successor John Steenhuisen and told him to stop accusing him of being responsible for the decline of support of the party.

Maimane said Steenhuisen must focus on the party’s poor showing instead of putting blame on him as he left the party in better shape.

He said the numbers were there to show that there was no massive drop in support during his time.

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Race is still on in Nelson Mandela Bay

Cape Town – The ANC’s fight for control of municipalities in the Eastern Cape is gaining ground, with the party snatching almost all the municipalities it was in charge of before the polls.

In the key metros of Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela, the ANC was still in the lead.

But in Makana the ANC was sitting at 48.98%, followed by the DA at 18.36%.

Fed-up residents of Makana have failed to gain ground after they formed a civic movement to challenge for the polls.

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Cape Town - The Western Cape is facing a number of hung municipalities with the final results to be known in the next two days.

The IEC in the Western Cape said on Tuesday there were 12 hung municipalities.

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The ANC had secured almost 46% of the vote nationally by 8pm on Tuesday with the party having already won 42 municipalities and leading in another 59 of those counted.

The DA was sitting at 22.57% and won eight municipalities and in the lead in 18 others.

The EFF had garnered 9.86% nationally and was followed by the IFP with 4.48% and the Freedom Front Plus stood at 3.03%.

Early on Tuesday, the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) announced that by 10.30am 27% of the 64 502 expected results had been finalised and estimated that 90% of results would be completed by evening.

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Gauteng - Gauteng’s first coalition after Monday’s local government elections could be sealed before the end of the week after the ANC won only half of the 26 seats in the Lesedi Local Municipality in Heidelberg.

The Socialist Economic Freedom Movement (SEFM) has emerged as a kingmaker after it won a proportional representation seat in the municipality.

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Durban – Preliminary results show the Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has won governance of a municipality in the province for the first time, as party leadership announced on Tuesday that it had won the uMngeni Local Municipality, in the uMgungundlovu district.

Head of the DA in KZN Francois Rodgers said the win will give the party an opportunity to roll out the model that it has in Cape Town and the Western Cape. Rodgers said the win gives the DA a platform, not as the opposition, but as governance in KZN to prove the party’s worth.

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Head of the DA in KZN Francois Rodgers says the DA winning the uMngeni Municipality will give the party a chance to roll out the model that it has in Cape Town and the Western Cape. 🎥 Jehran Naidoo/ IOL Politics

Johannesburg - While the ANC has maintained overall majority support nationally, their performance still paints a bleak picture for the leading party as they dabble below the 50% marker.

By 4pm on Tuesday, 36% of the votes had been counted, with the ANC in the lead at 47% support.

Speaking at the Electoral Commission’s (IEC) National Results Operation Centre (ROC), the ANC’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said the low voter turnout on Monday was disappointing.

She said the lack of youth perspective at the polls was especially disappointing.

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North West - The ANC was off to a steady lead in three North West municipalities where it was "threatened", as the election results trickled in on Tuesday afternoon.

The ANC was ahead in the JB Marks Municipality with 38.78% of the counted votes, while the DA had garnered 32.14%, according to the results on the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) election dashboard, as of 3pm.

The DA, which has made it known it wants to take control of the municipality, has won seven seats and the ANC also has won seven seats in JB Marks.

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Johannesburg - DA Leader John Steenhuisen has claimed victory for the DA in the Eastern Cape's Kouga Municipality.

The municipality consists of towns including Jeffreys Bay, St Francis Bay, Cape St Francis and Thornhill.

Steenhuisen announced the victory at the IEC’s Command Centre in Pretoria, telling reporters the party had secured the most seats in the council.

In 2016, the DA won the same municipality with 17 seats and 56.49% of the vote, while the ANC secured 12 seats and 40.57% of the vote and the EFF were third, with 0.96% of the vote.

With the count not officially over in Kouga, the Electoral Commission’s live data showed that the DA had secured nine Council seats as well as 53.5% of the vote, while the ANC had secured 37.18% of the vote and six Council seats.

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Cape Town - The Good party’s first local government election has seen the party receiving 4.59% of votes in the Western Cape so far.

This is according to the latest voter numbers which were updated at 3.25pm on Tuesday.

In the 2019 national and provincial government elections and three months after its establishment, the party was able to secure 70 000 votes. Two party members were sworn in as MPs and a third as an MPL.

The party had its eyes set on 45 municipalities, six of the metropolitan municipalities and about 1 000 wards.

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Durban - With the local government elections results still being counted, calls for the digitisation of elections emerged as analysts and political parties conceded that the voter turn-out was at its lowest since the dawn of democracy.

Thabo Shabangu, a young teacher who spoke to the Daily News on Tuesday, said the youth did not make time to go to the voting stations because they did not understand the value of voting.

“The IEC needs to engage in voter education. Young people need to be encouraged and involved in strategic leadership positions. Voter absenteeism from the youth can also be addressed through the digitisation of elections so they can vote on their smartphones. The use of technology or electronic voting process can be a solution,” said Shabangu.

IFP leader in eThekwini, Mdu Nkosi, said the digitising of elections was a good initiative. However, it would pose a challenge for elderly people who were technologically challenged

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Nkandla - THE Inkatha Freedom Party has inflicted more local government election wounds on the ANC in the Nkandla local municipality after snatching the prized ward 14 – former president Jacob Zuma’s home.

For the longest time, the ward was in the hands of the ANC, serving as a bastion for the ruling party in the IFP-run municipality.

The ANC briefly ran the municipality in 2011, when it entered into a coalition with the National Freedom Party, but the coalition soured and the IFP bounced back.

Despite the setback, the ANC was able to retain ward 14, even attaching its significance to the fact that it was the home of Zuma and under the clan of the Zumas of Nkandla led by Inkosi Bhekumuzi Zuma.

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Former president Jacob Zuma casts his vote in Ntolwane Primary school in Nkandla, KZN on November 01, 2021. Zuma was accompanied buy his wife Bongi Ngema Zuma before he went and interacted with ANC supporters outside the voting station at the school. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo/African News Agency(ANA)

Cape Town - The Electoral Commission (IEC) has stood by its voter management devices (VMDs) despite it presenting glitches and problems through the election process on Monday.

IEC chief electoral officer, Sy Mamabolo said they believed the voter management devices were the mainstay equipment for this election

He said it was these devices that ensured the IEC continued to meet the constitutional courts injunction that voters only vote in the wards in which they are registered and that every voter must have an address on the voters’ roll.

In a morning briefing held at the National Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Tshwane on Tuesday, Mamabolo said 12 186 869 votes were processed through the VMDs over the two days of special votes as well as election day.

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