Good day for ANC, bad day for DA in Wednesday by-elections

Three by-elections were held on Wednesday, with the IFP winning a seat from an independent and the ANC successfully defending a seat and winning another off the DA.

In uBuhlebezwe (Ixopo) in southern KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC defended a seat fairly comfortably. The party won nearly 70% of the vote on Wednesday, against the 75% it won in the 2021 local government election (LGE). Th IFP won 20% in the by-election, having won 6% in the LGE.

Elsewhere in KwaZulu-Natal, the IFP had a better day.

In Dannhauser, in the north of the province, the IFP took a seat from an independent.

In the 2021 LGE the ward had been won by Mlungisi Dhlamini, with 30% of the vote. He narrowly beat the ANC candidate, who won 27.5% of the vote, followed by the IFP, with 20%. On Wednesday it seems that most of Dhlamini’s supporters went for the IFP, with the party securing 52.2% of the vote, and the ANC 34%.

In Swellendam, where the third by-election was held, the DA lost a marginal ward to the ANC. In the 2021 LGE the DA had pipped the ANC, with 49.5% of the vote, compared to the ANC’s 47.6%. However, on Wednesday the DA could manage only third place, with 30% of the vote. The PA, which had won very few votes in the ward in the 2021 LGE, won 31.2% of the vote, and the ANC was victorious with 37.1%.

The IFP is continuing its surge in KwaZulu-Natal, but the result in Swellendam will worry DA strategists ahead of next year’s general election.