#Elections2024: How KwaDukuza voted
Of KwaDukuza's four leading parties in 2019, only the Democratic Alliance grew their support base.
Just over 101 000 KwaDukuza residents turned up to the polls this week. Let us take a look at how they voted.
All KwaDukuza votes have now been counted and the results make for interesting reading when placed in historical context.
uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the adopted party of former president Jacob Zuma, comfortably won KwaDukuza by a similar margin to that of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial vote.
In KwaDukuza, MK led the polls with 44 530 votes (44.83%), followed by an incredibly tight race for second with the African National Congress (22 794 votes, 22.68%) just edging out the Democratic Alliance (22 623 votes, 22.67%).
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were the only two other parties to claim more than one per cent, with 4.28% and 2.20% respectively.
MK was also dominant on a ward-by-ward basis, earning over 50% of the vote in 18 of KwaDukuza’s 30 wards and leading the vote in two others.
The DA was the highest vote-getter in eight wards, winning more than 50% in Wards 6, 16, 17, 22 and 30.
The ANC, who won 27 out of 30 wards in the 2021 municipal elections, was the leading party in just Ward 21 and 28, earning above the 50% vote mark in neither.
It must be stressed that ward calculations are a function of municipal elections and the makeup of KwaDukuza’s council does not change as a result of the national elections.
But the figures do show how swift the rise of MK has been in KwaDukuza, throughout KZN, and nationally.
For a more direct comparison, here are the national election results from within KwaDukuza in 2019:
- ANC: 58 720 votes, 60.59%.
- DA: 21 528 votes, 22.21%.
- EFF: 7 764 votes, 8.01%.
- IFP: 4 847 votes, 5%.
The number of valid votes cast in 2019 of 99 078 is also remarkably similar to this year’s election mark of 99 531.
Hypothetically, MK’s 44 530 votes are made up from a combination of 35 926 previous ANC voters, 5 518 previous EFF voters and 920 previous IFP voters, with a few smaller parties and new voters thrown in.
Of the top four parties in KwaDukuza in 2019, only the DA grew their support, winning an additional 1 095 votes this year.
While the voting figures still need to be officially confirmed by the Independent Electoral Commission, any changes are unlikely to be statistically significant.
You can find the results of all three ballots on the IEC website map here.
Make sure to read next week’s edition of the Courier for a full breakdown of this year’s elections.
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