Johnathan Paoli
The ANC has emerged as the winner in two Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality by-elections, retaining Ward 1 and Ward 10 despite challenges from the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and opposition parties, bolstering the party’s momentum ahead of the Local Government Elections in November.
On Wednesday, the ANC secured Ward 10, which includes Vergenoeg, East Bank, Haven Hills, Egoli and parts of Buffalo Flats.
The result came despite the ward’s former ANC councillor, Pearl Hanse, defecting to the PA before the by-election.
The ANC defeated the PA by 1,631 votes, finishing just short of the two-thirds threshold while securing more than 50% support in all four voting districts, with particularly strong performances at Clements Kadalie Hall (80%, up from 47% in 2021) and Amalinda (79%, up from 71%).
The PA emerged as the main opposition force, finishing second overall (with 13% of the vote, a significant increase from its previous 2%) and outperforming the DA (who dropped from 17% to 12%) in Buffalo Flats and Scenery Park.
But the DA narrowly led the PA at Clements Kadalie Hall and ultimately finished just 20 votes behind its rival across the ward.
The EFF’s support more than halved (falling from 11% to 5%), peaking at 9% in Scenery Park, while the UDM made only modest gains, with its strongest showing coming in Amalinda where it secured 10% of the vote.
Voter turnout stood at 38%, slightly lower than the 41% recorded in 2021.
The ANC also retained Ward 1, which was considered a key test for the party after its councillor, Kuhle Ciliza, also defected to the PA and contested the by-election under a new political banner.
Despite the defection and a crowded ballot that included the SACP and local parties One Love Alliance and the Progressive Community Movement, the ANC retained the ward comfortably, finishing 831 votes ahead of the DA.
The party’s strongest performance came in Pefferville, an area classified coloured under apartheid, where its support rose from 30% in 2021 to 45%, while the PA surged from 1% to 27% and the DA’s vote share collapsed from 60% to 25%, suggesting the PA drew heavily from former DA support.
In Duncan Village, however, the ANC lost ground as the United Democratic Movement (UDM) recorded impressive gains, securing up to 35% support in some voting districts, while the PA surged from 1% to 13%.
Despite suffering significant losses elsewhere in Ward 1, the DA found solace in the low-turnout Braelyn voting districts, where it increased its combined vote share from 64% to 74% while the ANC and PA finished on 14% and 8% respectively.
The EFF’s support collapsed from 8% to just 1%.
Turnout overall increased marginally to 41% from 40%.
The results could be seen as a significant boost for the ANC in one of the Eastern Cape’s most important metropolitan municipalities.
The party has now ended the province’s by-election cycle on a high note, having also retained Ward 32 in Buffalo City in March this year.
In a statement celebrating the Ward 10 victory, the ANC in the Eastern Cape’s Dr WB Rubusana region said the result demonstrated continued public confidence in the governing party.
“The ANC has once again proven that the people trust us to lead. The resounding win at Ward 10, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality by-election is not just a vote — it’s a mandate for progress, service delivery, and a better tomorrow,” the party posted on Facebook.
The party thanked voters, volunteers and community members for supporting its campaign.
The results are also likely to raise concerns within the opposition parties.
The DA lost support in both wards despite campaigning heavily in Ward 10, where it had argued that residents were dissatisfied with service delivery failures.
The EFF’s performance may be particularly troubling for the party after it increased its support across Buffalo City during the 2024 national and provincial elections and came close to overtaking the DA as the metro’s second-largest party.
However, in the by-elections its support fell sharply to 1% in Ward 1 and 5% in Ward 10.
The PA’s growth was another notable feature of the night.
While the party failed to convert councillor defections into electoral victories, it significantly increased its vote share in both wards and appeared to attract support from former DA and ANC voters.
In next week’s by-elections, the DA will be defending a ward in Rustenburg, North West, while the ANC will be defending a ward in Calcutta in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.
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