Pretoria - After bruising defeats, independent candidates in Tshwane and Madibeng have sworn to put the story of their poor showing behind them and focus on the 2024 general elections.
Ahead of the poll, the contestants who made their debut in the election, expressed optimism that they would spring some surprises by securing council seats.
Yesterday they sang a different tune after the audited results by the Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) showed that they had performed dismally.
Leader of Arusha Economic Coalition, Ali Mlazi, whose party failed to secure even a single seat in the Tshwane municipality, said the intention was to lick their wounds and focus on the future.
"This is a project, and we just have to continue and plan better. Obviously, the critical component is resources, but we will plan better. In two years from now we have got another election," he said.
He said he has already started calling meetings to thank those who voted for him because their support showed that the party was going in the right direction.
"The points that we got are indeed a step in the right direction. We thought we would do better. It was a poor showing, but we must be happy," he said.
His party was formed in 2018 in Winterveld and has participated in two previous by-elections.
Unlike Mlazi's party, Save Madibeng, a civic movement organisation based in Madibeng municipality in the North West province, managed to secure three seats in its debut election contest.
Its leader Tshepo Mokono said: "We got high expectations because of the insight that we got from the community, that people are not happy with service delivery.
“We have been intervening on their behalf against the ANC-led municipality. We are very disappointed that the very same people are going back to the same abuser," he said.
He, however, said Save Madibeng felt good to have three representatives in council to embark "in the struggle inside council and outside as the vanguard of communities".
"Three seats mean a lot, given that we registered in March to contest without resources, using our own salaries and people contributing donations," Mokono said.
Meanwhile, informal traders in Pretoria inner city were yesterday reeling in disappointment after they recorded poor results.
The traders had nominated one of their own, John "Shoes" Maluka, to stand as an independent candidate in ward 58.
Speaking on their behalf, Ramodike Morema said: "I think we performed well in one voting station, and in others we got four or five votes. Overall, we did not perform well, but we welcome the results because there is nothing we can do."
He was unhappy that many of the traders were turned back by the IEC officials from the CBD voting stations, where they were not registered.
Going forward, he said, the informal traders would rally behind ActionSA Tshwane mayoral candidate Abel Tau.
One of the ward candidates of a newly formed Republican Conference of Tshwane, Tshepo Moremi said: "We didn't get a seat in Tshwane council, but I am happy because we are a 45-day-old political party and we did better than old political parties.“
He said an election defeat would not make them throw in the towel, instead they would look into the possibility of forming one strong party.
He decried the fact that his party, which bagged over 2 000 votes in Tshwane, did not have strong financial muscles to run an effective campaign.
Pretoria News