DA retains Cape Town with 56% of vote
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Bush Radio
The Democratic Alliance retains an outright majority on Cape Town’s municipal council with about 56% of the vote, according to the final local election results. Sixteen other municipalities in the Western Cape remain without a majority, forcing parties to negotiate coalitions, reports Bush Radio.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), a South African political party, won about 56% of the vote in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality, allowing it to retain an outright majority and govern without a coalition. The final local election result thus gives the party a majority in South Africa’s second-largest city, according to Bush Radio.
The election also gave the DA 53.95% of the vote across the Western Cape province and 418 municipal seats. The party directly controls nine of the province’s 25 municipalities, including Cape Town, George, Berg River, Drakenstein, Hessequa, Mossel Bay, Overstrand, Stellenbosch and Swartland, according to Bush Radio.
The situation is different in the other municipalities of the Western Cape: 16 of the 25 provincial councils have no outright majority, opening the way for negotiations between parties to form coalitions. The Cape Town result avoids these negotiations in the metropolitan municipality, which accounts for about 70% of the province’s electorate. It completes the picture presented after the local elections, marked by the DA’s dominance in five metropolitan municipalities.
