WATCH: Unknown ANC candidate snatches victory in Diepsloot’s ward 95
DIEPSLOOT - Diepsloot's Ward 95 has a new councillor, Matlale Kate Mphahlele from the ANC, who trounced the DA's Refilwe Mathebula and Economic Freedom Fighters' Andrew Maleka by a wide margin.
Provisional results posted outside the four voting stations in the ward show that Mphahlele scored 5 360 votes.
The celebrating Mphahlele told Fourways Review that she was only waiting for the official announcement, but maintained that her victory was already a public secret in Diepsloot. “Of course I have won, you can call me councillor,” she said.
Mphahlele, a mother of three who is originally from GaMphahlele in Limpopo, came to Diepsloot in 1999 where she has been working in the community as a volunteer. She matriculated at Ngwanamohube Secondary School in Limpopo in 1993, and was heavily influenced by her late father Fredrick Mphahlele, who was also a staunch ANC supporter.
“I grew up in the ANC and know no other home… since my father was a community ANC leader in GwaMphahlele.”
She promised to remain in touch with the community and to report to them on any development, either positive or negative.
Mphahlele said she was renting a room in Diepsloot and has always been unemployed. She said she has been volunteering at the township’s OR Tambo clinic.
The single mother of three said she won’t be changing her social status anytime soon. “I will remain at the same level with the community. I won’t move out into a townhouse in a suburb or get myself a bigger house. I will remain in my one room.”
