SACP keeps red flag flying in Sasolburg poll debut
The SACP emerged as kingmaker from its first electoral outing in 67 years, after taking three seats in this week’s hotly contested election in the Free State’s Metsimaholo municipality.
The council was dissolved earlier this year because no one could form a functioning government, and after this week’s election it seems it may be as difficult to do so.
The ANC took a thumping, falling from 45% support last year to 34% this week, and the opposition vote splintered.
The DA went down from 29% to 28% while the EFF rose from 17% to 19%, Freedom Front Plus climbed from 2% to 3% and the civics fell from 4% to 2%.
The big winner was the SACP, which went from a zero base to 9%.
In the council of 42 seats, the ANC will have 16 (down by three from last year), the DA 11 (down by one), the EFF eight (unchanged), the SACP three, the Freedom Front one (unchanged), the civics one (down one), the African Independent Congress one (from zero) and Forum 4 Service Delivery one (from zero).
The EFF came close to beating the ANC in two wards, and the SACP almost dethroned the ANC in one. In the end the ANC retained all 16 previous ward seats by such small majorities that it ended up with no proportional seats. The DA held the other five ward seats, but by reduced majorities.
The electoral mathematics in Metsimaholo is going to be complicated, but the ANC and AIC usually stick together at local level, while the civics and the Forum 4 Service Delivery have had poor recent relationships with the DA. This gives the pro-ANC grouping 19 seats.
On the other hand, the DA, EFF and Freedom Front Plus usually stick together at local level, which should give the anti-ANC grouping 20 seats.
This means the SACP’s three seats will decide who gets the keys to the town, a fact ANC spokeswoman Khusela Sangoni zoomed in on.
“We will continuously engage with the SACP. The [tripartite] alliance still needs to discuss that decision. Such a meeting will be set up,” she said.
“We are happy that we held all 16 of our wards, but are unhappy that the EFF and the SACP, which are the ANC’s offshoot, are taking votes from us.
“At the same time, the lower turnout in Metsimaholo means any comparison with last year’s result is flawed,” said Sangoni.
Earlier in the week, SACP Metsimaholo candidate Themba November, who did well in ward 10, told the Sunday Times that reasoning with the ANC was futile. He likened interactions to “speaking to a brick wall”.
But the expectation is that, much as SACP leaders in Metsimaholo are fed up with the ANC, the SACP’s national leadership will be under pressure from Luthuli House not to turn on its long-time ally.
James Selfe, chairman of the DA federal executive, said his party had a tough election in Metsimaholo, with disenchantment with the previous coalition government breeding low turnout among white voters.
“We are very pleased that our black support has increased enough to set off that loss,” said Selfe.
He expressed gratitude to the EFF for supporting DA metro mayors Herman Mashaba in Johannesburg and Athol Trollip in Nelson Mandela Bay against ANC motions of no confidence this week. “The co-operative agreement held, and will become more stable as time passes and we get to know one another better,” said Selfe.
This week brought more good news for the opposition when the IFP took a ward off the ANC in the uMlalazi municipality at Eshowe, Zululand.
The DA held on to ward 102 (Brackenfell) in Cape Town and the ANC did the same in the Eastern Cape’s Nyandeni municipality, both by reduced majorities in low turnouts.
We are very pleased our black support has increased enough to set off that [white] loss James Selfe Chairman of the DA federal executive