Cape Town - Parties that bet on devolution or secession for the Western Cape have reaped their reward in as far as getting councillors on the City Council and increasing their share of the vote across the province in general.
At the same time it was notable that none of the independent candidates in the race for Cape Town achieved enough support to get on the council.
These parties include the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) which managed 34 seats across the province, the Cape Coloured Congress (CCC) eight seats and Cape Independence Party (CIP) one seat.
The FF Plus will have four councillors in the Metro, where previously they had one in the form of returning councillor Erica Botha-Rossouw.
Joining her on the council are former Western Cape provincial police commissioner Lennit Max, banker Grant Marais and Paul Jacobson, who is known for his anti-homeless views around the Atlantic Seaboard.
The CIP will be represented by party leader Jack Miller who campaigned on a platform pushing for an independent state in the Western Cape.
Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) analyst Phil Craig said: “The elections have shown strong growth for secessionist parties in the Western Cape, but also a clear political shift, both nationally and provincially, away from parties who favour a strong central government towards regional and federal parties who support the devolution of power.”
He said support for parties which have formally adopted Cape independence increased from 0.1% in 2016 to 5.4% in 2021.
Also celebrating is the Al Jama-ah party.
Party leader Ganief Hendricks said: “I am ecstatic to announce that our national spokesperson, advocate Shameema Salie, is one of our three PR councillors who will take up seats in the City. Salie will join our two other PR councillors, Achmad Hendricks and Mogamat Faried Achmat,” he said.
While some parties are still celebrating, others have their eye on the horse trading that will form part of the coalition building process. This will happen in the 16 councils across the province where no party received a majority.
Local councils have 14 calendar days from the day which the election result was declared to do so, following which district councils have a further 14 days to do the same.
Local Government MEC Anton Bredell said his department is ready and willing to assist all councils with the processes that will now follow:
Meanwhile,the ANC Youth League issued a statement signed by spokesperson Mesuli Kama in which they said the results reflect voters’ discontent with the party
Kama said: “In the Western Cape, it is disappointing that the ANC failed to capitalise and maximize its gains on the weaknesses of the DA which lost its majority in the 15 municipalities that it won in 2016.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za