The Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party caused the biggest upset in Wednesday’s by-election by snatching ward 110 from the DA and pushing the once mighty ANC into the third spot.
The Jacob Zuma-led party ran a low-key campaign, but it was able to upset the apple cart and win a ward that is predominantly Indian and White in geographical size.
Representation in eThekwini metro
The victory means that the party will now have a single councillor representation in the eThekwini metro. The metro is the biggest municipality in the province.
The MK Party got 2 435 votes, and the DA came close with 2,413 votes. The ANC only got 966 votes in its former stronghold.
The ward includes parts of Phoenix, Mount Royal, and Umhlanga in the northern part of the city of Durban.
Phoenix is predominantly Indian, and the DA won the Dale View voting district with 314 votes against the MK Party’s 108. At Rinaldo Park, a predominantly white area, the DA won with 1 013 votes and the MK Party got 139 votes.
In Sunningdale the DA once again won by 1 067 votes against MK Party’s 19 votes. This is a predominantly white area which includes Glen Anil and Sunningdale suburb.
MK Party sweeps Mount Royal
However, the MK Party later turned the table at Mount Royal. This is a largely black and densely populated settlement established around 2006 to accommodate people from the nearby KwaMashu township. It was where the Jacob Zuma-led party excelled and got 1 118, while the DA got only four votes.
In the end, the margin was 22 votes and the MK Party clinched the ward.
Another factor that appears to have contributed to the victory of the MK Party was the choice of the candidate they fielded for the by-election.
The party fielded Mandla Biyela, a hard-working activist who was once a member of the ANC and the SACP.
During his tenure, he helped in fighting crime in the area. He was also behind the formation of ANC branches in the township. Biyela later moved with almost the entire membership to the MK Party in December 2023.
