Yesterday’s local elections were peaceful and without any significant disruptions if one discounts the adverse weather conditions on the Natal Coast. But that fid not stop the EFF voters to come in the thousands to the polls and it looks that the Natal Coast Municipalities will be firmly in EFF hands!
But so far – and remember that not even half of the votes are counted yet – no other municipalities follow Julius. The follow more and more the DA, who seems to be the winner of these elections. While in 2011 only Midvaal in Gauteng found its new local government under the DA, the current votes indicate that from Tshwane in the North down to Emfuleni in the South the five most significant Municipalities will have more than 40% DA votes and only 20% ANC, with one exception as Midvaal shows currently above 60% DA votes.
The Western Cape with exceptions in Hessequa and Laingsburg ist firmly in DA hand with votes regionally exceeding 70%.
In the Eastern Cape Nelson Mandela Bay and Koega, the only economically active hubs have also fallen to the DA and while it looked earlier that parts of the Northern Cape and the Freestate followed suit, the current figures show a marginal lead by the ANC.
For now and in very, very early stages it seems that all municipalities hosting parts of the economic powerhouse of South Africa have turned their back on the ANC, while especially in rural areas the ANC managed to buy the votes with a T-Shirt and a Boerie Roll….sad affairs!