The IEC in the province’s Tebogo Nthanyana said that the ANC won the by-elections after 73% of the voters voted in their favour. This, despite the fact that the same community threw human waste at the Naledi Local Municipal offices over poor service delivery. OFM News earlier reported that locals threw human waste in the municipal building in Vryburg in protest of poor services. OFM News’ Pulane Choane reports that the ANC in the province considers this win as a prelude of things to come in the general elections in May.

The spokesperson of the ANC in the North West, Kabelo Mataboge, expressed to OFM News that the party was happy with this win as it showed that the people of the North West, despite their occasional squabbles with the municipal leadership, have renewed confidence in the party’s leadership. Mataboge also confirmed that he believed this victory was a prelude to the party’s winning the general elections, which will take place on the 8th of May this year.

The IEC has confirmed that there have been no reported incidents of protests at the two voting centres despite locals having invaded the local municipal offices yesterday owing to service delivery issues. The ward was represented by the ANC previously and became vacant as a result of the death of the councillor. The ward councillor will now be the ANC’s Lopez Mongameli Moeng, after beating the Democratic Alliance, Congress of the People, the Economic Freedom Fighter’s local party branches as well as one independent candidate, who were all vying for this ward. While he may have won the ward, figures provided by the IEC show that there was a drop in both the number of people that voted for the party in this by-election as well as the voter turnout number. The voter turnout for this ward in the 2016 municipal elections was 58.67%, while this year, it was 44,18%. Also, while it may have retained 73,53% of the votes cast in this by-election, this number is lower than the 2016 one, as at the time, 76,55% of residents voted for the ANC. The elections were held at two schools which were registered voting stations, while the results were announced on Thursday.

OFM News