OnWednesday South Africans went to the polls in the biggest, bumper-edition blowout of by-elections so far. 19 wards were contested at the polls, across five provinces. Almost all of these were ANC seats, and whether by the law of averages or the law of the market, the ANC ended up losing two of its wards and one of its municipalities. It almost lost a third ward, in Tlokwe. Bad day at the office, and it might get worse over the next couple of months.
When you have to defend 16 wards across the country in one day it can get very messy, and messy it did get for the ANC. The party ended up losing two of these wards, one to the DA and one to an independent candidate. One of these wards was in a municipality that will now swing to the DA-COPE alliance.
In the Eastern Cape the ANC retained two wards. Ward 6 of Inxuba Yethmba (Cradock) was uncontested (the party had won the ward with 71% of the vote in 2011). In ward 15 of Engcobo, following the death of its councillor, the party increased its share of the vote from 91% to…
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Article source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201308080798.html