Voters queue during municipal elections in Meyerton, Midvaal Municipality, south of Johannesburg on 3 August 2016. (Photo: EPA / Kevin Sutherland) 
Western Cape
Ward 7 (Vanrhynsdorp) Matzikama, West Coast: DA 43% (62%) PA 37% (6%) ANC 16% (31%) United Democrats 3% #HOPE4SA <1%
The setting: Vanrhynsdorp is on the N7 national road linking Cape Town with Namibia. Tourists pass through the town during flower season as the nearby Vanrhyns Pass becomes a patchwork of vivid colours. Ward 7 is part of the tourist route since it hosts two of the most famous succulent nurseries in the country. It has five voting districts – two in the town and two just north of the town centre in the relatively vote-rich Maskamsig. There is also a sparsely populated voting district around the Urionskraal farming area east of the town. Matzikama includes towns such as Vredendal and Lutzville, and it borders the Northern Cape. This is important to understand because traditionally it has been much more competitive than other West Coast district municipalities. These are set around towns such as Malmesbury, Piketberg and Saldanha Bay. Matzikama and the Cederberg (Clanwilliam) are relatively rural when one considers the whole West Coast District.
The 2022 by-election: Patriotic Alliance ward councillor Kito Boks defected to the DA after becoming unhappy with the PA wanting to withdraw its support for the DA-lead coalition. He resigned his seat and stood for the DA in the by-election.
The DA’s by-election victory was centred on Maskamsig. This was where the PA won enough votes to hold off the ANC and the DA in 2021. It was clear that Boks is extremely popular in Maskamsig. The DA won both Maskamsig voting districts by convincing margins of 53% and 55%. The DA also ran up the numbers in the districts in the town of Vanrhynsdorp.
To round off the victory the DA won the Urionskraal voting district, the farming district outside the town, with 55%.
The Matzikama council composition changed to: DA 7 ANC 4 PA 1 GOOD 1 FF+ 1 EFF 1. Total: 15. This allowed the DA and the FF+ to have a stable coalition.
The 2024 provincial election: The DA swept all the voting districts in the ward, winning 55% of the vote. The ANC pipped the PA to second place by one percentage point, finishing on 17%. The FF+ was fourth with 6%.
The by-election: Boks was at the centre of a dramatic council meeting where the DA-FF+ coalition saw their control of the mayoral chain, speaker’s gavel and deputy mayorship fall away. Boks voted with the ANC, PA, GOOD and EFF. In its place, the PA was able to win the mayorship, with the ANC bagging the speaker’s position and the EFF the deputy mayorship.
Boks was expelled from the DA, after which he defected to the ANC.
The DA retained the ward by 166 votes. The PA made deep inroads, even surpassing its 27% return from the 2021 local government elections when the party won the ward. The PA also beat the ANC in all five voting districts in a disappointing result for the latter.
The turnout was highest in Maskamsig. Here the PA won both voting districts, getting an impressive 50% of the vote at the Community Hall, and 46% at the Masibambane Multipurpose Centre district. The DA came second in both districts and the ANC third. The DA’s support in Maskamsig declined sharply from both the 2024 provincial election ballot and the 2022 by-election.
The DA won 80% at the Town Hall and ran up the numbers at the High School voting district with a 92% haul. It also took 70% of the vote in the rural Urionskraal district, but the 26% turnout here was far lower than the ward average.
The win for the DA means the party now has the numbers to take back the mayoral chain from the PA/ANC/EFF/GOOD coalition. The DA has seven seats again. It is supported by the FF+ in the municipality which has one seat. This gives it 8/15 seats and a clear majority.
Poll: 62% (59%)
Ward 3 (Dam-Se-Bos Nekkies) Knysna, Garden Route: ANC 50% (69% PR*) PA 48% (8% PR) LAND 1% AUF 1% (2% PR)
The setting: Ward 3 is east of the Knysna town centre and the industrial centre. It straddles the N2 national road which links the town with Plettenberg Bay. Knysna forms part of the Garden Route district which includes the towns of Oudtshoorn, Mossel Bay and Ladismith.
The 2021 local government election: The ANC romped home in Ward 8, well ahead of the chasing pack on the PR ballot. No other party could get into double percentage figures. The PA was runner-up, with the DA in third place on 7%, just ahead of the EFF on 6%.
The PA got into double percentage figures in the Dam-Se-Bos voting district. This propelled the party to second place overall, even though it finished behind the DA and the EFF in the other two voting districts.
Things were more competitive on the ward ballot, with the ANC winning 58%. An independent candidate came second with 19%. The PA was third, just ahead of the DA and the EFF.
The DA won 35% of the vote across Knysna, with the ANC just behind on 33%. The local Knysna Independent Movement (KIM) took bronze with 8% while the PA was fourth with 7%. The EFF finished behind the regional Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners (PBI) in sixth place. It only won 2% of the Knysna vote.
The 2024 provincial election: The ANC won 63% of the vote in the ward when one considers the three Ward 3 voting districts. The PA had solid growth here to end on 16%. The DA also grew in the ward as it garnered 11% support. The EFF was fourth with 7%. MK barely featured in this ward while the LAND party received zero support.
The DA won 51% of the vote in the entire Knysna municipality. The ANC was second with 27%. In 2021, not much separated the two parties. In 2024, there was a significant gap. The PA was third on 13% and the EFF fourth on 5%.
The by-election: Mncedisi Skosana, the Ward 3 councillor, also served as speaker of the municipality. He was removed as councillor by the provincial MEC for serious infringements relating to political appointments in the municipality. He was sanctioned alongside the mayor and deputy mayor. He refused to resign while the mayor and deputy mayor resigned before the MEC could act against them. The former mayor won his seat back in a recent by-election.
The ANC clung on here by a mere 31 votes as the PA came very close to causing a major upset. The ANC was saved by the impressive differential turnout in the Hlalalani Methodist Church district where 63% of registered voters showed up and the ANC obtained 68% support, while the PA won 32%. The 215 vote margin between the ANC and the PA was enough for the ANC to pip the PA to the finish line.
At the Uncedo Taxi Association Office in the Nekkies area, the ANC beat the PA by 174 votes, with 62% support. The PA took 36% in this district.
The PA shocked the ANC at the Chris Hani Community Hall in Dam-Se-Bos, winning 70% and beating the ANC by 358 votes. In 2024, on the provincial ballot, the ANC beat the PA by 356 votes in this district. It is a seismic shift in a short time. The turnout at Chris Hani was 46%, below the ward average.
On paper this should have been the least-competitive by-election. It ended up being the most competitive. The PA will look at this result and the Matzikama result and know it is well on track to make big waves in the Western Cape during the local government elections.
Poll: 52% (47% PR)
Eastern Cape
Ward 6 (Southernwood Mthatha) King Sabata Dalindyebo, OR Tambo: ANC 44% (41% PR*) Ind-Dlulane 23% EFF 17% (9% PR) UDM 13% (18% PR) ATM 3% (3% PR)
The setting: Southernwood sits between Walter Sisulu University and the Mthatha central town centre. The ward straddles the N2 national road, which runs through Mthatha. King Sabata Dalindyebo is the third-most-populous municipality in the Eastern Cape and the most-populous non-metro municipality in the province.
The municipality includes Qunu, the childhood home of Nelson Mandela. Other famous sons of the municipality are DJ Black Coffee and Bantu Holomisa. King Sabata Dalindyebo forms part of the OR Tambo district, an ANC stronghold.
The 2021 local government election: Ward 6 was one of the more competitive wards in King Sabata Dalindyebo, with the ANC unable to win more than 50% of the vote and falling short of its average of 64% across the municipality. The UDM’s average vote share was 15% and the EFF’s was 7%.
The ANC won just more than 40% of the proportional representation (PR) vote. The United Democratic Movement (UDM) came second with 18%. The Mthatha Residents Ratepayers Association (MRRA), a local party, came third with 10%, while the EFF pipped the DA to fourth place, with both parties obtaining 9%.
The ANC won 39% on the ward ballot ahead of the UDM on 20%. An independent came third with 10%, just ahead of the MRRA, also with 10%.
The ANC won 36 of the 37 wards in King Sabata Dalindyebo. The only ward it didn’t win was taken by an independent candidate.
The 2024 provincial election: The ANC came first here with 36% of the vote. The UDM was second again, taking 20%, with the EFF improving to 19% compared with its 2021 return. The DA was fourth with 11%, while the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) obtained 3%.
Ward 6 was an outlier again compared with the rest of the municipality. The ANC won 61% of the vote across King Sabata Dalindyebo, with the UDM coming second with 16% and the EFF third with 11%. ATM was fourth with 4%, ahead of the DA on 3% and MK on 2%.
The by-election: The ANC was solid in this poll, staving off the challenge from a local pastor who ran as an independent. The MRRA and DA sat out the by-election.
The independent candidate, Pastor Cwengwa Dlulane, won two of the four voting districts, bagging both in Southernwood. The challenge for Dlulane was that he barely featured in the other two districts, finishing behind the EFF and the UDM and well behind the ANC. He will surely consider running again in the next election. You can also expect other parties to try to get him to run under their banner.
Read more: By-elections hub
The Transkei Primary School is a mere 500m from the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha. This was the district where the ANC did best, taking 67% of the vote. It also won 53% of the vote at the Mthatha General Tent voting district on Nelson Mandela Drive. This is the most-populous voting district in the ward, and also where both the EFF and the UDM fared best, with the EFF getting 23% and the UDM 17%.
Poll: 19% (34% PR)
This was the final round of by-elections for August. The next by-elections will be on 3 September. The ANC will defend two super-safe seats, in Cacadu in Emalahleni, Eastern Cape, and in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Municipality, Limpopo. There will also be a by-election in the town of Douglas in the Siyancuma Municipality in the Northern Cape, where the DA will aim to win a seat formerly held by an independent councillor.
The proportional representation (PR) ballot is used when it is a better mode of comparison for party support in the ward. In 2021, an independent candidate ran on the ward ballot. Due to that candidate not contesting again, we use the PR ballot.