By-elections reshape local politics across four provinces

By Johnathan Paoli

The latest round of municipal by-elections delivered significant political shocks across four provinces, with the ANC losing ground in key battlegrounds and independents upending voting patterns in the Northern Cape.

The DA, Patriotic Alliance, and MKP also consolidated momentum ahead of next year’s local government elections.

The results, drawn from competitive wards in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape, signal heightened volatility at local level and a shifting political landscape in several councils.

The ANC entered the by-elections seeking to stabilise its recent national downward trend but instead lost three wards in Mandeni, Kou-Kamma and Siyancuma and suffered steep declines in four others.

Any hopes of a post-G20 uplift for the party seem not to have materialised, with the ANC instead confronting new coalition headaches in at least three municipalities.

In Gauteng’s Merafong City, the ANC retained Ward 10 in Khutsong East but saw