By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) has won Ward 7 in Ennerdale and Finetown in the deep south of Johannesburg.
Lois Simonse took 47% of the vote, a 13% increase on the November 2021 local government elections, beating the ANC’s Sipho Lukhele, who garnered 24% and ActionSA’s Luvuyo Kamba (14%).
Responding to the outcome on Twitter, PA leader Gayton Mckenzie said the party had won the ward despite an attempt by the DA and ActionSA to portray it as a surrogate for the ANC.
“Our people rejected nonsense,” McKenzie said.
The missing political factor for this election was the DA, after Randell Markgraaff withdrew his nomination on 16 June, days after the candidate selection process had closed. He resigned after a meeting with McKenzie.
DA campaign manager Nicola du Plessis said Markgraaff had indicated to her that Mckenzie had requested a meeting with him through an intermediary. Ahead of the meeting, Markgraaff had also mentioned to Du Plessis that he knew McKenzie was known to have offered “R5 million with a promised relocation to Cape Town with his wife and daughter”.
The PA now has nine councillors in Johannesburg, while the ANC falls to 90. The two parties are in a coalition in Johannesburg. This result has no impact on that, but it does strengthen the PA in the coalition. The party now has triple the number of councillors compared with the fourth-largest party in the coalition, Al Jam-ah.
The DA meanwhile took four of the 10 wards that were up for grabs countrywide, consolidating its position in eThekwini, Tshwane, Cape Town and Middleburg in Mpumalanga, where it retained ward 13 with 43.7% of the vote.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) won a total of three wards in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday, two in the Inkosi Langalibalele local municipality and one in the Alfred Duma local municipality.
The ANC won an outright majority in Mkhondo but lost eight of its 29 seats to end on 21 in the 39-seat municipality. It lost ground to the EFF and independent candidates. The EFF more than doubled its seat allocation – from three to seven – to become the official opposition in Mkhondo. Independents won two wards in the municipality.
The next round of by-elections is on 19 July. There will be four in Mangaung, three in George in the Western Cape, two in KwaZulu-Natal and one each in the Eastern Cape and North West.