ANC to lose control
2008-12-18
THE ANC suffered a severe defeat in the five by-elections held in Paarl last week, and is likely to lose control of the Drakenstein Town Council once it meets again next year. The DA and the ID each walked away with two wards while town councillor Spasie Kika of Cope (formerly ANC) managed to retain her ward as an independent. The four new councillors are Joyce Kroutz (DA) of Paarl East, Frans Kellerman (DA) of Klein Drakenstein, Ruth Arnolds (ID) of Wellington and Gerald Witbooi (ID) of Saron. The ANC now has 26 town councillors, while the DA has 22, the ID has 5, the NNP has 3, the WCC has 2, and the VF+, Cope and ACDP have one each. A lot of horse trading is expected as the ANC and DA will each try to form a ruling coalition with the aid of smaller parties. Of the four major parties who contested the elections, the ANC got the least votes, while the DA and ID have both performed well, beating the independent candidates who support Cope in four of the five wards. The voter turnout varied from 51,76% in Saron to 31,12% in Wellington with an average poll percentage of 43,9% over the five wards. In Klein Drakenstein (Ward 28), Frans Kellerman of the DA garnered 32,35% of the vote, narrowly defeating Dina Johnson of the ANC (30,68%), with Edmund Pheko of Cope getting 19,6% of the support, and the ID’s Cecelia Mitchell trailing fourth with 13,94% votes. In Saron (ward 30), where the DA did not have a candidate, Gerald Witbooi of the ID got 55% of the votes, followed by Cope-supporter Dan Kotze (25%) and the ANC with 19% of the votes. In Weltevrede, Wellington (ward 7), Ruth Arnolds of the ID gained 31% of the vote, followed by Cope supporter Magdelene Williams (25%), Ursula du Plessis of the ANC (19,8%) and Chris Thole of the DA (13,85%). In the Dalvale/Chicago area of Paarl East (ward 21), Cope supporter Spasie Kika got 29,3% of the votes, followed by the DA’s Eva Gouws (26,81%), Felix Cupido of the ID (25,34%) and Titus Williams of the ANC got 18,2% of the votes. In another ward in Paarl East (ward 26), Joyce Kroutz of the DA got 35,72% of the vote, followed by Magdalene Meyer of the ID (35,5%), Karolis Petersen of the ANC (19,3%) and Cope supporter Van der Berg Pienaar (17,17%). The smaller parties did not fare well: the two WCC candidates drew only 14 votes, while the single candidate of the NPSA drew 29 votes, the single candidate of the People’s Democratic Movement garnered 24 votes and the single candidate of the NPP drew 57 votes. The total votes for the FD’s three candidates was 33.
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