Rustenburg: 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.
Going into the election, the DA said it wanted to control JB Marks and Rustenburg municipalities.
Rustenburg was the only hung municipality in North West, where the ANC did not score an outright victory to take full control in the 2016 municipal election.
The ANC won 43 out of 89 council seats, and went into coalition with Botho Community Movement, a community-based organisation from Boitekong which won one seat, and the African Independent Congress, which also won one seat.
The ANC leads in Rustenburg with 47.42% of the counted votes, with two seats, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) was second at 18.5% and the DA at 10.5%.
In Ramotshere Moiloa, the ANC was holding well after losing more than 400 members, including eight councillors, to Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) two weeks before the election.
The ANC leads with 62.54% of the counted votes, F4SD was second with 13.64%, while the Economic Freedom Fighters was third with 12.39%.
Forum 4 Service Delivery had its sights on wresting power from the ANC in Ramotshere.
In other municipalities across North West, the ANC was in a comfortable lead. On average the ANC has polled 53.06% of the counted votes in North West, and has won 38 seats.
The EFF has 15.43% and the DA 14.03% of the counted votes.
IOL