ANC upsets DA in Knysna by-election
THE ANC scored a major upset in Knysna in Wednesday’s municipal by-elections, when its candidate won the traditional DA stronghold of ward 11 (Hornlee).
ANC support in the ward shot up from 29% to 48.5% while the DA’s votes fell from 51% to 34.1%.
The candidate who won the seat for the ANC was Lorraine Opperman, who crossed over from the DA earlier this year after her party membership was terminated for disobeying the DA caucus’ voting instructions in a council vote.
Opperman’s victory, which returns her to the council, gives the ANC nine seats on the council and keeps the current ANC, Cope and Knysna Unity Congress coalition in power.
In Beaufort West’s ward 4 (KwaMandlenkosi town centre) the ANC held on to its seat with its candidate Castro de Bruin taking 43.2% of the votes cast, while in Cape Town’s ward 20 (Delft South and Eindhoven) the DA’s Dineo Masiu emerged victorious to retain the seat for the party with 50.7% of the vote.
ANC Western Cape convener Lerumo Kalako said: “We consider the two by-election victories registered in Beaufort West and Knysna as encouraging signs for the national local government elections scheduled to take place in October.
“Yesterday (Wednesday), President Ramaphosa announced national local government elections will be held on Wednesday, October 27. We will focus our attention on this date and are convinced that our by-election wins are a sign we will do much better at the polls than we did in the previous local government elections.”
DA Western Cape acting provincial leader Albert Fritz said: “(The) by-elections served as an invaluable learning curve for the DA. In Knysna, th