Celani Sikhakhane
The ANC won only one full district in KwaZulu-Natal – Harry Gwala.
It looks as if the ruling party might have the influence of the Eastern Cape to thank – or “Eastern Cape fever” as some have put it.
Harry Gwala District Municipality sits on the border of the two. It was once under the Eastern Cape before 1994 but it was later demarcated to KZN.
That district consists of areas such as UMzimkhulu, Kokstad and iXopo among others. Some parts of the district were under the former Transkei.
After the announcement of the 2021 local government election results, the Harry Gwala District emerged as the main hope of the ANC.
All local municipalities of Harry Gwala District which include Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma local Municipality, Greater Kokstad, UMzimkhulu and Ubuhlebezwe municipalities were won by the ANC.
All the other key districts and local municipalities in the province that were under the control of the ANC were taken over by the IFP in these elections.
ANC regional chairperson Zamokuhle Nxumalo told Scrolla.Africa on Thursday that their tactics to decampain independent candidates who were posing a serious threat to them worked.
“We work very hard to decampain the Independent candidates. We had about 25 of them here but only two won the election. In actual fact we only lost three wards out of 61. The two wards went to the independent candidates and one ward went to the IFP,” said Nxumalo.
Another strategy they used was to convince voters that a vote for independents was a wasted vote.
Nxumalo and his party also managed to expose some independents who were using ANC resources including t-shirts, slogans and vehicles with ANC branded colours.
