Cope restricted as DA makes inroads

Patrick Cull POLITICAL EDITOR

THE ANC swept the board in municipal by-elections yesterday, restricting the Congress of the People (Cope) to less than 30 per cent in nine Eastern Cape wards and three in the Northern Cape.

The polls resulted from the resignation of ANC councillors who were then nominated by Cope.

During Cope leader Mvume Dandala‘s whistle-stop tour, one party supporter described the current political situation as being like South African soccer, in which there were two major teams, Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, and that they would battle it out for supremacy.

That prediction proved to be substantially correct – but with the exception that the DA won just more than 33% of the vote in Ward 53 to finish behind the ANC and in Ward 38 where it polled 25,3% ahead of Cope.

The system of proportional representation at national and provincial level will ensure that this does not happen on April 22. But at local level, the situation appears to be heading towards a position where the ANC, Cope and DA will be the major players, and the Independent Democrats, UDM and IFP becoming increasingly limited to specific regions.

This trend could well be confirmed when further municipal by-elections are held in the Eastern Cape later this month.

The focal point will be Buffalo City, where 22 sitting ANC councillors have been fired for allegedly supporting Cope, in the next big test for both the governing party and the breakaway group.