Johannesburg – The ruling party of South Africa, the ANC is in a fight for its life to win the bigger metros in the country, while the party is leading the pack on a national basis.
In the interim, the ANC has by far claimed 46.11% of the electorate support thereby assuming approximately 282 seats.
On the other hand, the DA is accelerating on 25.71% of the support and 111 seats.
Lastly, comes the EFF with 8.7% of the electorate support and only 11 seats.
As the day proceeds in the National Result Operations Center, the parties bet on better results.
DA leading by wide margin in KZN uMngeni Local Muncipality previously governed by the ANC
The Democratic Alliance’s aggressive campaigning in the Umngeni local municipality seems to have paid dividends with the current numbers indicating that the party was leading by a wide margin.
If this remains the case, uMngeni will become the first council in the province to be governed by the DA. Currently, 4% of the votes has been counted by the IEC and the DA has recorded a whooping 64.35% while the ANC and the EFF are trailing.
The municipality located in Howick under the uMgungundlovu district, in the province’s midlands region was previously governed by the ANC.
Heightened political tensions and jostling for the control of the municipal financial resources between ANC councillors rendered the uMngeni rendered the municipality ungovernable leading to massive community protests over service delivery.
The ANC was also dealt a heavy blow in the eve of elections when its deputy mayor Nompumelelo Buthelezi crossed the floor and joined the DA.
In the 2016 local elections government the DA displayed a strong showing only losing by a mere 9% of voter share. The council has seen massive community protests over endemic corruption and poor service delivery.
Last year, the municipality came under spotlight when it emerged that it had lost millions of rands in fraudulent activities.
In one instance, the municipal department awarded a tender of more than R 400 000 under the pretext of servicing a truck that had not been on the road since 2013.
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