Ward 47 Councillor Mokgadi Kganakga has joined Rise Msanzi as its provincial coordinator. The party was launched in April under the leadership of Songezo Zibi, a former associate editor of the Financial Mail and former editor of Business Day.

Five parties will contest the 29 November by-election – the DA, ANC, Patriotic Alliance, EFF and Afrikan Alliance for Social Democrats – said IEC provincial spokesperson Mmathabo Rasengane, adding voter turnout in the 2021 municipal elections was 44.2%.

Ward 47 is situated to the east of Bloemfontein and includes parts of Heidedal, Oos-Einde and Bram Fischer Airport. In 2021, the DA won the ward with 44.2% of the votes, followed by the ANC (25.23%), Patriotic Alliance (10.67%), EFF (9.57%) and FF Plus (5.86%). The Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats received 26 votes (0.62%).

Special voting will take place at voting stations, as well as through home visits, on Tuesday (28/11) between 08:00 and 17:00. 

On the day, voting stations will be open from 07:00–21:00, Rasengane said.

Mokgadi joined the DA in 2014 and was included on the party’s PR list two years later. In 2019, she contested the by-election and won ward 47, the largest and possibly most contested ward in Mangaung. During the November 2021 municipal elections, she secured 1,839 votes to keep the ward blue.

During the most recent by-elections in Mangaung, the ANC retained all four wards that became vacant after the expulsion of eight ward councillors in March.

OFM News/Lucky Nkuyane Corné/