Independents rise, Mashaba struts
The M&G Politics Team unpacks some of the many surprising developments in the local government polls
Phoenix rises to DA’S tune
While the Democratic Alliance’s racist “heroes” campaign poster in Phoenix in ethekwini raised political hackles around the country, it appeared to have been better received by the residents of the wards in the predominantly Indian area.
The DA retained control of four of the five Phoenix wards in Monday’s poll, beating the ANC and independents aligned with the Forum 4 Service Delivery. And it took the fifth — ward 50 — off the ANC.
Sibling rivalry
For the Ntabeni family in Matatiele, victory in ward 10 of the Eastern Cape municipality was certain, no matter who won the election, because all four registered candidates for the ward were brothers.
Siphamandla Ntabeni (ANC) won the ward with 68.51%, followed by Vuyani Ntabeni (independent candidate) with 8.73%, Luyolo Ntabeni (African Independent Congress) 7.5% and Loyiso Ntabeni (Economic Freedom Fighters) with 6.93%.
Like father, like son
While the former president Jacob Zuma and his would-be president son, Duduzane, have been punted as vote pullers by their supporters in the governing party, neither appears to have been much help this time around when it comes to the wards they live in.
The former head of state’s Nxamalala village home, located in Nkandla municipality’s ward 14, is now under the control of the Inkatha Freedom Party after the IFP candidate, Philani Nkwanyana, beat the ANC’S Sicelo Thusi by a margin of 1 519 to 792.
In ethekwini ward 11 in Newlands, where Duduzane Zuma resides, the ANC candidate suffered a similar fate and the DA’S Graeme Clarivette is now the new councillor, despite the best efforts of Zuma junior.
Independents tally gains
Competing as an independent candidate or grouping, with no government funding nor the resources traditional political parties have, is daunting. But it did not stop more than 1 500 candidates and 120 movements and forums to stand independently, yet representing much more than only themselves.
In the Free State, the Setsoto Service Delivery Forum (SSDF) made waves as the locally driven forum won 11 100 votes (22.88%) in the Setsoto local municipality, second only to the ANC.
“Thankfully, we’ll be able to do the work we’ve been wanting to do for years. We’re focused on [our] next steps,” said Selloane Lephoi, the spokesperson and one of the founding members of the SSDF.
The SSDF, which was only formed in March and began in August to campaign for this year’s local government polls, garnered eight seats out of a 33 in the municipality, headquartered in Ficksburg.
The SSDF independents reduced the ANC’S majority from 21 seats to 17, and they are now gunning for the 2024 provincial elections.
The country’s youth also placed themselves on the political battlefield to take responsibility for their future. Candidates such as the Youth Independence Party & Youth Associates, in the Langeberg municipality in the Western Cape, got 478 votes. Another candidate, Kirsten Poking, who only had the assistance of two volunteers, received 63 votes in Ward 57 in the City of Cape Town metro.
Mashaba klaps the EFF
It is safe to say that, with only a year in existence, Actionsa and its leader Herman Mashaba have taken the EFFS’ lunch money in Johannesburg, the city with the biggest budget in South Africa.
Mashaba, who had a three-year stint as mayor of Johannesburg, proudly walked with his stomach in and chest out at the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s national results centre.
Considering that Mashaba needed the EFF’S support in 2016 to become mayor, it is ironic that he will now be needed more than the red berets for any party to lead a Johannesburg coalition.
Exiting the Cape confusion
Capexit is a movement that wants the Western Cape declared an independent country. It has more than 800 000 registered members. The movement, largely driven online, upholds the notion that it would follow a “legal and peaceful route” to reach its goal, away from politics.
But, a day after South Africans headed to the polls on Monday, Capexit was briefly pulled into the centre of politics when it was mistaken for the Cape Independence Party (CIP). The non-profit organisations recorded more than 80 phone calls on Tuesday from journalists wanting to know how it fared in the local government elections.
Not playing along by saying “We won”, Capexit members patiently explained they did not compete in the elections and referred callers to the true culprit causing the confusion. In April, the CIP changed its name from Cape Party to Cape Independence Party with the abbreviation Capexit.
DA councillor for Cyril , Julius
President Cyril Ramaphosa and EFF leader Julius Malema will continue to be represented by their DA ward councillor in the luxury Johannesburg suburb of Hyde Park.
Martin Williams, the DA councillor who recently told the Mail & Guardian that Ramaphosa and Malema don’t suffer the ignominy of enduring Eskom-sanctioned blackouts, retained his seat.
One thing is certain — neither voted for Williams: Ramaphosa voted in Soweto and Malema in Seshego, Limpopo.
No more seat at the table
The United Democratic Movement (UDM), the Congress of the People (Cope) and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) were among the parties seated at then DA leader Mmusi Maimane’s top table discussing coalitions in 2016.
After that year’s local elections, when many municipalities, including Gauteng’s three metros, had no outright winner, the UDM, Cope and the ACDP backed the DA in municipal coalition governments after being wooed by Maimane.
Fast forward five years and the three parties are not even afterthoughts in this year’s coalition talks after having their lunch money taken from them by Action SA.