The ANC’s electoral misfortunes continued on Wednesday when the ruling party lost a crucial by-election in the Inkosi Mtubatuba local municipality’s ward four under the King Cetshwayo district.
The ward, which was won by the ANC during the 2021 municipal elections, was snatched by the IFP, who garnered 704 votes against the ruling party’s 562 of the total votes cast. The red berets could only walk away with a meagre 32 votes.
The by-election results put the IFP in pole position with 22 of council seats, needing only extra two seats to have a clear majority.
Reacting to the vote outcome, the IFP said it won the amid failed attempts by the ANC to convince the people of Mtubatuba to vote for the ruling party.
“We received reports that others stooped as low as dishing out cash to some voters as means of trying to convince those people to vote for them,” the IFP said.
“We are also aware that state resources were used by some ANC MECs to swing voter support including giving out a number of bicycles to the locals by the transport MEC, as means of persuading the Mtubatuba voters to vote for the ANC.”
In another by-election in ward 31 of the Newcastle local municipality, which falls under the Amajuba district, Team Sugar South Africa (TSSA) managed to retain the ward. The new kid on the block garnered 1 203 votes against ANC’s 801 votes and EFF’s 33. An independent candidate received 102 votes.
Leading up to the contest, the TSSA threatened that if the IFP contested the ward, it would pull out of a coalition arrangement, resulting in the IFP not taking part in the contest. The Newcastle local municipality is governed by the IFP through a coalition with TSSA and other smaller parties.
Recently, the EFF served the IFP with divorce papers in all municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal and forged a partnership with the ANC and the National Freedom Party, a splinter group from the IFP.
The red berets subsequently instructed all its deputy mayors to resign because of the fallout with the IFP.
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