SA's oldest municipality up for grabs in Western Cape by-election

The DA and the ANC have just two months to drum up support to take control of the oldest municipality in the country – Beaufort West.

The Independent Electoral Commission has announced that the date for the by-election is May 24‚ giving parties ample time to campaign.

Ward 7 in Beaufort West became vacant when DA mayor Koos Malooi abruptly resigned from his post last month‚ amid rumours about leadership squabbles in his party.

According to the IEC‚ the ward has 4‚131 registered voters and just over 50% of the voters turned up to vote for Malooi in last year’s local government elections.

Currently‚ Beaufort West municipality has a hung council.

In last year’s local government elections‚ the DA and ANC won six seats each‚ but the DA took power after it negotiated a coalition agreement with the Karoo Democratic Force.

Should the ANC win the upcoming by-election‚ it will assume power and may bring back controversial former mayor Truman Prince.

Meanwhile‚ in KwaZulu-Natal‚ Nquthu Municipality will finally go for a rerun of last year’s elections after the council was dissolved by Nomusa Dube-Ncube for failing to form a government.

“The by-elections will include all 17 ward and 16 PR council seats. There are currently 76‚606 registered voters in the 116 voting districts in Nquthu‚” IEC spokeswoman Kate Bapela in a statement.

In last year’s election‚ the Inkatha Freedom Party won 15 seats but could not form a government since it did not win a governing majority.

The ANC had 14 seats‚ while the National Freedom Party had two seats‚ with the Economic Freedom Fighters and the DA winning one each.

Politicking has prevented a formation of a government in the council since the result of the local government elections.