A win for the ANC

The ANC has won 17 of the 18 wards in Ngwathe, despite a decline in support. The official results of the Local Government elections, released on Friday, show that the ANC received 65.08% of the total number of votes. This is a drop of about seven percentage points compared with the 71.88% in 2011.
The DA received 22.31% of the votes, followed by the EFF with 7.69%, the Vryheidsfront Plus (3.15%), COPE (1.07%) and the ACDP (0.23%).
The DA easily won Ward 12, with Cllr Saal de Jager receiving 72.4% of the votes cast at Parys Library, Parys Town Hall and the AME St Leonard Church in Tumahole.
Carina Serfontein, the DA’s caucus chair, says the party is grateful for the support received and positive that it will continue to progress with each election. “ We look forward to continuing to serve Ngwathe’s residents.“
The number of wards in Ngwathe has been decreased from 20 to 18 and the number of councillors from 39 to 36. The DA now has eight councillors, seven of them Proportional Representation (PR) and the ANC 24 – four fewer than previously. The Freedom Front Plus still has one PR councillor and the EFF now has three PR councillors. There is no longer a COPE councillor.
Jaco la Cock, the DA’s candidate in Ward 8, did well. He received 41.67% of the votes polled at the Vredefort Town Hall, the station with the most voters in the ward. This was not far behind the ANC’s 46.06%. The Vryheidsfront Plus was third with 9.12%.
In Ward 14 Parys, Joan Ferreira of the DA received 364 of the 407 votes cast at the Rotary Club. In Ward 15 Shirley Vermaak of the DA polled 1089 of the 1294 votes cast at the NG Kerk Wes Saal. However, the ANC won both of these wards, which each have two voting districts in Makwallo, Vredefort.