There was a scenario that South Africans could wake up on Thursday morning with the ANC and its coalition partners removed from power in Knysna and Beaufort West. But the party retained the Beaufort West seat and won the Hornlee seat in Knysna from the DA.
The DA was again stymied by losing votes to smaller parties appealing to coloured voters, and was also affected by a former DA ward councillor retaining her seat as an ANC candidate.
In by-elections late in 2019 there was a clear pattern of former DA voters lending their support to parties like GOOD in George and Vredenburg, and the Patriotic Alliance and Al Jama-ah in Johannesburg.
Western Cape
There are three by-elections in this province, keenly contested by the DA and the ANC. There is a potential change of government in two of the municipalities.
Ward 20 (Delft South Eindhoven) in the City of Cape Town; DA (62%) ANC (30%) EFF (3%). Poll (58%).
The City of Cape Town has not been electorally kind to the ANC in recent elections. The ANC will think they have an outside chance in this by-election. The DA’s by-election performance has been anything but stellar of late, but the party will believe they are somewhat protected from the northern troubles in the Western Cape, especially Cape Town. Cape Town was the least interesting of the metros in 2016, with the DA outperforming the ANC in its urban strongholds of Mangaung and Buffalo City.