Big parties take hit from civic movements and pacts

Civic movements and compacts of new candidates, borne out of frustration over service delivery failures and governance collapses in municipalities, have diluted the dominance of major parties, eliminating their majorities in some councils.

Support for the ANC and the DA has been eroded in several provinces, including Mpumalanga, Free State and Gauteng as civic organisations that contested power made major inroads in some  disgruntled communities.

In the Lekwa municipality in Mpumalanga the ANC's support dropped from the 65% it previously secured to just over 42% after civic association the Lekwa Community Forum (LCF) decided to directly contest the polls.

The LCF, which has been campaigning against service delivery failures, including sewage spillages and electricity load reductions in Standerton, secured 19.43% of the votes and became the official opposition ahead of the DA, which dropped to 13.36% from the 16.4% it received in 2016.

Of the 30 seats in the municipality, ANC seats have been reduced from 20 to 13, as the forum snatched six seats.

LCF secretary Oliver Phiri said the community had backed the civic organisation as it had championed their interests before they pressured it to directly contest power on their behalf against political parties.

“The community told us to just contest because of the work we do as a forum in assisting in social problems, including dealing with sewage spillages in homes. We are over the moon because we didn't expect that we will get these numbers, for a civic movement that is contesting for the first time. We just need to keep our promises to the people and contest again going forward,” Phiri said.

In the Free State’s Maluti-a-Phofung, the ANC stood at 45.09% of votes by late yesterday, while newcomer MAP16 followed on 24.66%, followed by the EFF on 9.13%.

MAP16 is a civic movement that was formed by 16 ANC councillors when they were expelled by the party in 2018 after siding with the opposition in the cash-strapped municipality. The municipality had been engulfed by violent protests over water shortages that year.

With  more than 80% of residents considered to be living below the poverty line, the dysfunctional municipality is considered to be among the poorest in the country.

Also in the Free State, the ANC’s majority in the Setsoto municipality was reduced from 61.1% to just over 50% as the Setsoto Service Delivery Forum secured 22.88% of the vote when it contested the municipal elections for the first time, making it the official opposition in the struggling municipality.

In Gauteng, the dysfunctional Emfuleni municipality, which has been plagued by poor service delivery, was also contested by independent candidates from the New Horizon Movement and the Community Solidarity Association.

The ANC dropped from the 55.6% it secured in 2016, while the DA increased its share of the vote from 24.7% to 27.69% and the EFF increased from 12.2% to 15.64%.

Mmusi Maimane, who supported some of the civic movements with his One SA Movement, said while some of them had not performed well, they had made an impact in municipalities.