Cape Town - The ANC has been toppled in another municipality after the DA got into a deal with the Freedom Front Plus and another party to take over the Dr Beyers Naude Municipality in the Eastern Cape.
The municipality was one of those that the ANC failed to win with an outright majority.
Komma Municipality was also hanging by a thread as the ANC failed to win it with a clear majority of 50% plus one.
The ANC has been suffering heavy defeats this week, starting with the metros in Gauteng and other municipalities in the Free State, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
DA provincial chairperson in the Eastern Cape, Andrew Whitfield, said on Tuesday that their main objective was to ensure clean governance in Dr Beyers Naude Municipality. He said they would fight corruption.
Whitfield said they took over the municipality from the ANC after they got into a coalition with the FF+ and the Compatriots of South Africa. He said the deal was finalised shortly before the council got under way today.
Ewald Loock of the DA was elected the new mayor of Dr Beyers Naude Municipality. Laughton Hoofman of the Compatriots of SA bagged the position of speaker. The municipality will send three councillors to the Sarah Baartman District Municipality.
“This coalition opens new opportunities for the DA and its partners to bring change to the Sarah Baartman district by possibly taking over the government of this municipality,” said Whitfield.
The ANC had been in negotiations with some of the parties to get the municipality. This was after they stitched a deal with other parties in Nelson Mandela Bay yesterday to get it back after they lost it in 2016 to a DA-led coalition.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Political Bureau