STEVEN LANG
The ANC won a by-election held in Ward 10, Makana municipality on Wednesday albeit with a significantly reduced margin. The party’s candidate, Andile Mbeju, ensured victory with 632 votes or just under 50% of the total number of votes cast.
The seat for Ward 10 was left vacant when ANC Councillor for the ward, Zodwa Cetu passed away earlier this year.
In the 2021 local elections, Cetu received 870 votes or 67.34% of the total number of votes cast in the ward. This means that although the ANC won substantially more votes than the other candidates in the November 26 by-election, it lost over 17 percentage points compared to the 2021 results.
The DA candidate, Ayanda Bodla, came in second place with 335 votes or 26.3% of the 1281 votes cast. This is a massive improvement over the 1.47% the party secured in the ward at the 2021 local elections.
In third place, was the Makana Citizen Front candidate: Thembinkosi Ngeleza with 121 votes. Fourth was the Patriotic Alliance candidate, Nomatamsanqa Mavikela, with 77 votes. In fifth place, Phaphama Nkontsa of the Economic Freedom Fighters received 67 votes and the final candidate, Losi Phaphu, of the South African Communist Party, won 38 votes.
The election campaigns focused on service delivery failures and the lack of employment opportunities.
