Publications
Partners
The ANC was set to return to the helm of the troubled Mamusa Local Municipality in the North West having already retained eight of the nine wards following Wednesday’s by-elections.
It was, however, too early to start celebrating as the party’s victory needed to be sealed by the number of council seats it would score in order to be declared the majority party.
Although the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) was yet to declare any results and release figures, indications were that the ANC has won the wards by a big margin, although there was a marginal drop noted in some wards compared to the 2016 local government elections results.
Kenny Morolong, spokesperson for the interim ANC provincial committee, said they would not celebrate until the IEC was done with consolidating the results, and they knew how many council seats they had won.
The ANC had 11 seats in the dissolved council followed by Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) with three, the EFF with two and the DA and Freedom Front Plus with one each.
“We need only 10 seats to lead the council … we’re planning to have a victory party but for now we’re going to wait for the IEC to declare the results. We remain confident of retaining our position as the majority [party],” Morolong said.
While the mood in Ipelegeng township was still subdued, a number of people were seen clad in ANC colours while others waited in groups at different spots for the final results. Several ANC branded bakkies fitted with loud speakers had already started playing music in some areas.
READ: ‘Why must I vote when I still queue for water?’
Meanwhile, the DA lost Ward 9 – which it won in 2016 – to the Freedom Front Plus.
The party had hoped to retain the ward in Schweizer Reneke and top it with at least one proportional representative (PR) seat.
“Our only hope now is to get a PR seat but will wait for the IEC to do its calculations. It is, however, very sad that the ANC, which has created all the mess [in this area], is now being put back into power. But we will accept the elections outcome and hope they [the ANC] will, on assuming power, ensure there are consequences for wrong-doing and make reports into all the maladministration and looting of municipal resources known,” said Joe McGluwa, the DA’s provincial leader.
The F4SD was also disappointed with the election outcome. However, the party will not have to pay its ward candidates R100 000 it promised if they won the elections.
Mbahare Kekana, the F4SD’s leader, appeared to have accepted the preliminary results which showed that his party would not retain even the three council seats it won in 2016.
“We’re not hopeful just looking at the numbers from the wards … we can’t be certain that we will get back those wards. These elections were hotly contested and we gave it our level best. But this is not the end of the world as 2021 local government elections is coming and we will be at it once more,” Kekana said.
Tumelontle Thiba, head of the IEC in the North West, confirmed the preliminary results – placing the ANC in poll position with eight wards out of the nine in Mamusa.
Thiba said counting was concluded around 8.30am on Wednesday and by 10.30am the consolidating of results was completed.
She said they were hoping for only 5 000 of the 28 000 registered voters in Mamusa to vote in the by-elections but that had more than doubled.
“Voter turn out was at about 13 300 which is 47% of the voter population. The by-elections were very interesting and highly contested indeed,” Thiba said. She said they were hoping for the official election results to be declared by 1pm or later on Thursday.
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
