Daily Maverick
Dailymaverick logo

Politics

Politics, South Africa, Maverick News

DA snatches outright control of Beaufort West, crushes competition in Cape Town wards

DA snatches outright control of Beaufort West, crushes competition in Cape Town wards
File photo from last year of a vandalised pool in Rustdene, Beaufort West. This pool is one of three pools Gayton Mckenzie promised he would revamp in the town and when Daily Maverick visited last year it was empty and the surrounding building were vandalised. . 11 May 2023. (Photo: Shelley Christians)
Wayne Sussman
By Wayne Sussman
20 Jun 2024
Facebook
1
In Western Cape by-elections on Wednesday, the DA won an outright majority in Beaufort West by sweeping all three contested wards, including taking two off the Patriotic Alliance in the town of Beaufort West and one off the ANC in the small town of Murraysburg. And former mayor Truman Prince, who resurfaced this time under the banner of his new Movement of the People party, won just 2% of the vote, a signal that this may be his final electoral dance. The DA also won by landslides in the three Cape Town wards.

Beaufort West, Central Karoo


The setting: Beaufort West is the most populous municipality in the Central Karoo. It covers vast tracts of land and extends from the town of Beaufort West to parts of the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape border. It includes the village of Merweville and the small town of Murraysburg. 

The Central Karoo is the district municipality with the fewest people in South Africa. It has fewer than any district in the Northern Cape and southern Free State. Other towns in the district include Laingsburg and Prince Albert.

The 2021 local government elections: Both the ANC and the DA lost seats here in 2021. The ANC won more votes than the DA, but both parties ended up with four seats each, down from the six they had going into the election. The PA did the most damage to the two established Beaufort West parties, winning three. GOOD and the Karoo Democratic Force (KDF) won one seat each. The ANC, PA and KDF formed a coalition, with the PA taking the mayoral chain, the KDF the speaker’s seat and the ANC the deputy mayor position. 

The 2024 provincial election: The DA was the most popular party in Beaufort West, winning 43% of the vote, slightly up from its 2019 returns (41%). The ANC remained the second-most popular party on the provincial ballot but fell from 40% to 29%. The PA came third with 16%, and Mmusi Maimane’s Build one South Africa (BOSA) fourth with 3%. 

Read a preview by Sune Payne in Daily Maverick here: Beaufort West's mayoral chain up for grabs

The by-elections: The DA needed to win all three wards to gain outright control of the municipality. 

Ward 1 (Murraysburg) in Beaufort West, Central Karoo: DA 42% (31%) ANC 39% (36%) Ind-Skuza (Incumbent) 9% KDF 8% (17%) EFF 2% (<1%)


The setting: Murraysburg sits on the R63 regional road between Victoria West in the Northern Cape and Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape. This small town relies on farming and has emerged as a hub for garlic farming.

The 2021 local government elections: The ANC beat the DA here by 118 votes in a closely fought duel. The ANC bested the DA by 10 percentage points in both the Murraysburg voting districts, with the DA winning the two rural voting districts in the ward. The KDF garnered an impressive 20% of the vote at the Murraysburg Community Hall voting district. This helped it finish third in the ward with 17%. The PA came fourth with 5%.

The provincial elections: The ANC came first here with 41%, just ahead of the DA on 38%. The KDF party endorsed the PA for the elections. This helped the PA finish third with 11%. Good came fourth with 5%. The Murraysburg Town Hall was pivotal in helping the ANC finish first in the ward as it beat the DA by 12 percentage points.

The by-election: Ward councillor Ralph Skuza was arrested on fraud charges after allegedly swindling a resident out of monies received for a car which was promised but never handed over. Skuza was let off after a warning. He quit the ANC soon after the incident. 

Skuza decided to run for his old seat as an independent. The PA and KDF continued their pre-election cooperation agreement, with the PA supporting the KDF in this ward, and the KDF supporting the PA in the other two wards. 

The DA beat the ANC by 63 votes to win in Murraysburg. The ANC’s percentage vote share grew in both of the populous Murraysburg voting districts. It went from 40% to 41% at the Murraysburg Town Hall, and from 37% to 40% in the Murraysburg Community Hall. However, the DA’s growth was more pronounced. It grew from 30% to 44% to finish first at the Town Hall and climbed from 27% to 38% at the Community Hall. 

The DA carried the two farming voting districts with ease. The party will, however, be concerned about the low turnout at Brakvlei. The fact that it narrowed the gap at the Community Hall from 10 percentage points in 2021 to only two in 2024 was key. 

Ralph Skuza came third in the by-election. He won 10% of the vote at the Community Hall and 23% in one of the farming districts. It was a poor night for the KDF. Despite the PA standing down in the ward for them, they fell from 20% to 9% at the Community Hall and from 13% to 6% at the Town Hall.

Comparing the by-election results with the provincial election results, the DA and ANC all but swapped percentage points and placings. 

Poll: 56% (57%)

Ward 3 (Rustdene Nieuveld) in Beaufort West, Central Karoo: DA 41% (18%) ANC 19% (30%) PA 18% (43%) ARA (Incumbent-Botha) 10% (<1%) MP Ind-Gouws 9% MP 3% Ind-Dassie 1% EFF 1% (<1%)


The setting: Ward 3 comprises the neighbourhoods of Rustdene, Nieuveld and Essopville in Beaufort West. They are on the right side of the N1 when driving through the town from the Cape Town side. 

The 2021 local government elections: The PA beat the ANC by 296 votes in the ward. The PA won all three voting districts. Its margin of victory in Rustdene was an impressive 194 votes. It was neck-and-neck between the PA and the ANC in Nieuveld Park, with the PA getting six more votes than the ANC. The DA finished a distant third but was second in the Essopville voting district. 

DA Rustdene File photo from 11 May, 2023: A vandalised pool in Rustdene, Beaufort West. It is one of three pools Gayton McKenzie promised he would revamp. When Daily Maverick visited in 2023 it was empty and the surrounding buildings had been vandalised. (Photo: Shelley Christians)



The 2024 provincial election: The DA won 46% of the vote in the ward, up from 42% in 2019. The ANC came second with 21%, well down from 29% in 2019. The PA finished third with 20%, picking up support from those who voted ANC, KDF and Good in 2019. Bosa was fourth with 6%. 

The by-election: Beaufort West mayor and ward councillor Ebeneazer Botha was forced to resign as mayor by PA party leader Gayton McKenzie after a voice note surfaced alleging Botha committed gender-based violence. Botha became the fourth PA mayor to resign from the position since the 2021 elections. Botha resigned as councillor, quit the PA and joined the African Restoration Alliance (ARA). 

Former Beaufort West mayor and local strongman Truman Prince has resurfaced with a new party, the Movement of the People (MP). It supported Bosa in the 2024 elections and fielded a former Bosa youth leader as its candidate in the by-election. Prince’s wife remains a PA councillor and deputy mayor of the Central Karoo District. Two independents also ran in the by-election. 

The DA beat the ANC by 557 votes and the PA by 579. The party swept all three voting districts and jumped from third place to first in the ward. The PA did not benefit from the KDF standing down for it and endorsing it. The PA and ANC’s support went to the DA, ARA and an independent candidate, Sharon Gouws. The DA was the prime beneficiary of the PA and ANC’s lost support. At Nieuveld Park, the DA grew from 17% to 44%. The PA fell from 40% to 17% and the ANC from 40% to 18%. ARA was fourth with 9%. 

In Rustdene, the DA surged from 16% to 36%, with the ANC all but holding on to its 2021 support, moving from 25% to 24%. The PA declined from 44% to 18%. ARA and Gouws tied on 9%. In Essopville, the DA jumped from 29% to 49%, while PA went from 47% to 19% and the ANC fell from 19% to 3%. Gouws came third here with 14% while ARA obtained 11% of the vote.  

The DA, ANC and PA were slightly down on their recent provincial ballot showing. This can be attributed to Gouws and the ARA. 

Poll: 55% (57%) 

Ward 6 (Rustdene) in Beaufort West, Central Karoo: DA 37% (20%) PA 23% (31%) Ind-Rabie 18% ANC 15% (22%) PMC 4% MP (Truman Prince) 2% EFF 1% (4%)


The setting: The bulk of the ward’s voters are also in Rustdene. This ward also has two very large voting districts south of the town which run near the N1 national road to Cape Town and the N12 national road to Oudtshoorn. The two large voting districts probably have a sheep-to-people ratio of 1,000:1. 

The 2021 local government elections: The PA prevailed in a four-way tussle, beating the ANC by 195 votes. It won both Rustdene voting districts. The ANC’s solid second-place finish in the vote-rich Pinkster Eenheid voting district in Rustdene was enough to finish second overall. The DA was second in the other Rustdene voting district and won by landslides in the two rural voting districts. Good finished fourth with a credible 15%.

The 2024 provincial election: The DA beat the PA and the ANC by more than two votes to one. It received 43% of the support in the ward, slightly down from 46% in 2019. The PA was second with 21%. The ANC fell to third place with 19%, 12 percentage points down from 31% in 2019. Marius Fransman’s People’s Movement for Change (PMC) finished fourth with 6%. 

The PA and PMC took votes from the ANC, Good and KDF in this ward. 

The by-election: The PA ward councillor resigned from the council after being summoned to a disciplinary hearing after being accused of voting with the DA in council. Truman Prince appeared on the ballot in Ward 6 under the banner of his new Movement of the People (MP) party. The PMC was also hoping to have a better run than its dismal performance in the provincial elections in the Western Cape. There was also an independent candidate on the ballot. The ward was expected to be a duel between the PA, DA, MP, ANC and an independent candidate and youth activist, Juanita Rabie. Good decided to sit out the by-election. 

The DA won all four voting districts and beat the PA by 277 votes to win its second successive ward off the PA. The DA appeared to pick up much of the PA and ANC support in the ward, while Rabie won over many Good voters. 

At Pinkster Eenheid in Rustdene, the DA more than doubled its support as it went from 16% to 38%. The PA receded from 32% to 28%, while the ANC lost more than a third of its percentage support, falling from 29% to 19%. Rabie won 12% of the vote here. Good received 15% of the vote here in 2021. 

At the New Fountain Ministries, the DA improved from 21% to 34%, while the PA dropped from 32% to 18%. Rabie came second with an impressive 27%. The ANC declined from 14% to 10% and the EFF from 7% to 1%. Marius Fransman’s PMC garnered 7% here. 

The DA won the two farming districts comfortably with more than 80% of the vote, although the PA did make some inroads in Scheurfontein. 

Compared with the 2024 election result in this ward, the DA, ANC and PMC are all slightly down, affected by Rabie. The PA made small gains over the previous result. 

One politician who failed to perform in this by-election was former mayor Prince. He only won 2% of the vote. He has been a cat with nine lives in Beaufort West, but this could well have been his last electoral dance. 

Poll: 61% (57%)

The impact of the DA winning the two seats off the PA and one off the ANC means it now has an outright majority in Beaufort West, and that it can replace the ANC/PA/KDF coalition.

New council composition: DA 7 (4) ANC 3 (4) PA 1 (3) KDF 1 GOOD 1. Total: 13.

City of Cape Town


There were three by-elections in the City of Cape Town. All of these seats were in traditional DA strongholds, with the battle for second place seen as the more interesting contests.

The 2024 provincial elections: The DA won 56% of the vote again in Cape Town. Its vote share went up by 0.01%. The ANC was still second in Cape Town but dipped from 28% to 20%. The EFF was third with 6%, up from 5% in 2019. The PA came fourth with 4% and the Cape Coloured Congress (CCC) fifth with 3%. 

Ward 64 (Muizenberg Fish Hoek) Cape Town: DA 98% (85%) ANC 1% (2%) EFF 1% (1%)


The setting: Ward 64 is centred on Muizenberg and Fish Hoek in the deep south of Cape Town. The DA’s defence in this ward is as solid as former Bafana Bafana defender and hometown hero Matthew Booth, and as miserly with shedding vote percentages as another local son was with conceding runs, Protea spinner Paul Harris. This is also the ward where Agatha Christie used to love surfing. 

The 2021 local government elections: Good and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) were the DA’s closest challengers in this ward, both finishing 82 percentage points behind. The DA won 92% in the Fish Hoek Primary School voting district. 

The 2024 provincial election: The DA won 86% of the vote in the ward, slightly up from the 84% it won in 2019. Rise Mzansi came second with 2% and the ACDP third with 2%, down from 4% in 2019. The ANC shrunk from 4% to 2%.

The by-election: The ward councillor resigned to take up a job in KZN. The ANC and EFF were on the ballot with the DA.

The DA won by a country mile in this by-election. The party activists will feel they will be deserving of the honour of joining the old ladies who bathe every morning in the waters off Fish Hoek main beach for a celebratory swim. 

The DA won 99% of the vote at Fish Hoek Primary School and Fish Hoek Civic Centre. 

Poll: 28% (58%)

Ward 105 (Durbanville Vierlanden) Cape Town: DA 89% (77%) ANC 8% (10%) EFF 3% (2%)


The setting: The ward includes a voting station with more than 6,000 registered voters. The Durbanville Community Church in Vierlanden was a voting station seen on television on election night. It had long snaking queues where premier Alan Winde and mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis were seen engaging with voters and asking them to stay in the long lines. While Vierlanden is dense with registered voters, other voting stations in the ward are more rural and sparsely populated, including Philadelphia, Fisantkraal and Klipheuwel. 

The 2021 local government elections: The DA won more than 80% of the vote in five of the six voting districts. Klipheuwel was the only competitive district, where the ANC ran the DA close. The DA won 44% and the ANC 32%. The FF+ came third with 4%.

The 2024 provincial election: The DA won 76% of the vote in the ward, up from 70% in 2019. The ANC lost more than a third of its percentage support in the ward, declining from 19% to 12%. The EFF grew from 1% to 3% to finish third. 

The by-election: The ward councillor resigned. The DA came very close to winning 90% in the by-election. This result was made possible by winning 1931 of the 1934 total valid votes at the Durbanville Community Church and 393 of the 394 total valid votes at Vissershok Primary School. If we round up the percentage results here, the DA gets to 100%. The party also grew substantially in the competitive Klipheuwel district, from 44% to 72%, while the ANC fell from 32% to 22%.

The ANC will be happy with growth from 3% to 29% and the DA with its 83% to 61%.  

Poll: 26% (50%)

Ward 113 (Table View) Cape Town: DA 98% (84%) EFF1% (2%) ANC 1% (2%) ARA 1% (<1%)


The setting: Table View is a suburb near the Bloubergstrand Beach, near Milnerton. 

The 2021 local government elections: The DA beat the chasing pack by 81 percentage points. The ACDP, Cape Independence Party and the FF+ got 3% each. The DA won more than 80% of the vote in all five districts. 

The 2024 provincial election: The DA won 85% of the vote, up from 83% in 2019. The EFF came second with 3%, up from 2% in 2019. The ANC halved from 6% to 3%. 

The by-election: Joy Solomon represented the ward for 13 years as councillor. She decided not to finish her third term and retired from council. The DA romped home to an easy win here. Its best result was at the Early Learning Centre in Table View where it won 745 out of 748 total valid votes. It won more than 99% in 2 out of the 5 voting districts in the ward.

The EFF won the contest within the contest by beating the ANC for second place in the ward. In 2021, the ANC did edge the EFF, but the EFF pipped the ANC on the provincial ballot in 2024. 

Poll: 20% (57%)

The DA could not have asked for a better start on the Western Cape road to the 2026 local government elections. It will also hope to turn around Beaufort West with its outright majority. DM

Read about other by-election results in Daily Maverick: IFP wins big in KZN’s uMzumbe, MK party gets its first ward councillor

Categories:

Tags: