WITH a higher than usual voter percentages turning out to make their marks in the three by-elections in Wards 5, 10 and 11 in the Nongoma Municipal by-elections, the Inkhatha Freedom Party (IFP) lost their three seats which became vacant when the councillors crossed from the IFP to the African National Congress (ANC).
Ward 5 ANC candidate Sithembiso Bonginkosi Gumbi kept his seat which he held as an IFP councillor, with 44.91% of the votes.
The ANC received 1 104 votes, while the National Freedom Party (NFP) received 822 and the IFP 532.
It was a much closer affair in Ward 10 where the NFP candidate, Mbongeleni Victor Ntombela, won the seat with 906 votes. The ANC were three votes behind with 903 and the IFP managed 824 votes.
In the third ward contested, Ward 11, the NFP’s Nombuyana Samuel Ncube took the seat with nine votes more than the IFP who had the support of 880 voters and the ANC received 710 votes.
While the NFP celebrated their victories in the by-election and the ANC have made inroads into the Zululand heartland, the IFP were unhappy with the taxpayers money used by the ANC in their election campaigns.
NFP President Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi said, ‘Our Nongoma victory is proof that the NFP is here to stay and it will be a force to be reckoned with in the 2014 elections. Because of our failure to win any ward during the previous by-elections, people thought we were a dying party, now it is clear we are no dying party.’
The NFP victory means that the party controls 15 of Nongoma’s 21 wards.
The party now has 21 councillors (including Proportional Representative Councillors) in the 42-seat Nongoma Council, which means that the NFP is now only one seat short of an outright majority at Nongoma.
In a statement released by the IFP, they complained of the high-level campaigning by the ANC led by the Premier Senzo Mchunu.
‘The results of the Nongoma by-elections were a bad omen for opposition parties and democracy as South Africa moves to the 2014 general elections,’ the statement said.
It said that using the pretext of engaging in service delivery programmes, the ANC launched an intensive campaign in the space of about two weeks as the political contest was reaching its crescendo, which saw Nongoma being ‘bombarded with several flamboyant government functions – some of which involved well-known musicians, DJs and radio personalities’.
The IFP claims that ‘millions of taxpayers’ money were spent in the three wards in that short space of time.’
They also accused the Zululand District mayor of using delivery issues in her campaign.
‘Mayor Zanele KaMagwaza-Msibi of (the) Zululand Municipality was also not to be outdone.
‘She too spent millions moving in and out of the three wards in ‘delivery services’ programmes which saw her deliver water tanks and other services to communities which had waited for years for her municipality to deliver water.’
24 OCTOBER
IFP lose all three by-elections in Nongoma
IN the three hotly contested by-elections in Nongoma yesterday (Wednesday), the trio of KZN political heavy weights went head-to-head for the vacant seats.
The results saw the Inkatha Freedom Party losing all three seats to the African National Congress (ANC) and the National Freedom Party (NFP).
In Ward 5 the ANC took the seat with Sithembiso Bonginkosi Gumbi getting 44.91% of the votes.
In the other two wards, the NFP took both seats.
Ward 10 was won by Mbongeleni Victor Ntombela who received 34.41% and in ward 11 Nombuyana Samuel Ncube 35.86% of the votes.
All three seats became vacant when the IFP councillors joined the ANC.
