ANC retains Lesedi in Gauteng with just over half of the votes

The ANC has retained the Lesedi municipality after it received 50.43% of the votes in Monday’s local government elections.

This is the first municipality in Gauteng whose results have been fully counted and processed.

The result means the ANC will get 13 council seats, the opposition DA will be allocated five and the EFF will get four seats.

Nthabi Tsipana, Electoral Commission (IEC) Gauteng provincial manager of electoral matters, confirmed the outcome on Tuesday afternoon.

“Lesedi municipality has 40 voting stations and all have been concluded. In Lesedi we are seeing the ANC leading the pack, followed by the DA,” said Tsipana.

She said in Midvaal, which is run by the DA, the IEC was at 92% completion. The municipality is expected to be retained by the DA, which is leading at 68.22%, followed by the ANC with 16.72% of the votes.

Tsipana said in Johannesburg, the IEC had processed 163 out of 867 voting stations. In Ekurhuleni 207 of the 643 stations had been processed and in Tshwane only 86 of the 778. 

“We are at a point where we have processed 27% of all the voting districts in the province. Out of the 2,815, the rest of them have been captured but they have to be audited and released in the system. Once that has been completed, seat allocation will happen,” said Tsipana.

IEC provincial electoral officer Thabo Masemola said they were hoping to complete processing all the results by Wednesday.

“We are going to push very hard. We all want to conclude this hopefully by tomorrow. Those who are planning victory parties can go and celebrate,” said Masemola.

Some parties are starting to celebrate small victories in Gauteng. 

IFP chairperson Bonginkosi Dhlamini told the media his party had already snatched two wards in  Johannesburg, an indication his party may have more representation in the council.

The IFP is part of the coalition government run by the ANC.

“I think we will do better, far better. We had five [councillors], all were PR. We did not have a ward,” said Dhlamini.

DA MP Rhume Ramulifho, the party's liaison officer stationed at the Gauteng results centre, said he was feeling good about the results but it was still early.

“We are hopeful that Johannesburg is going to be a hung municipality so it will be led by a coalition government,” said Ramulifho. 

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