ANC wins by-election

THE ANC won the by-election held in Prieska ward 2 in the Siyathemba Municipality on Wednesday, where a 53.42 percent voter turnout was recorded.

Grenwill Maritz from the ANC received 494 votes (45.57 percent of the votes) followed by the DA’s Sarah Saaiman with a total of 317 votes.

Independent candidate George Plaatjies garnered 200 votes, former EFF member Ronald Februarie, who stood as an independent candidate, received 45 votes and the EFF candidate, Bettie Julies, won 28 votes.

Independent Electoral Commission spokesperson Kate Balepa said yesterday that the ANC retained the seat in ward 2 that it won in the 2016 local government elections.

“However, the ward was won by a reduced margin of 45.57 percent of the votes cast as compared to 53.89 percent in the 2016 municipal elections,” added Balepa.

DA constituency head Ismail Obaray stated that the party was satisfied with the four percent growth in the voter percentage.

“We are on a mission to govern South Africa and the Northern Cape in coalition governments come 2019,” he said.

ANC provincial secretary Deshi Ngxanga stated that while the ANC had lost some ground, it was confident that it would gain more votes in the future.

“The independent candidate coming from our ranks was the branch secretary and we are of the view that he could have taken some of our votes. We will have engagements with the independent candidate in the near future,” said Ngxanga.