The party’s candidate Oupa Mogoshane lost Ward 26 with 900 votes to independent candidate Batiki “Stone” Mahlabe’s 1 425 votes, according to the IEC’s results report.
The United Christian Democratic Party’s candidate, Moeketsi Phakedi, received 10 votes.
A total of 5 677 people were registered to vote in the ward, of which only 2 374 cast their ballot. There were 39 spoilt votes.
Mahlabe, who was a former ANC councillor in the area for 12 years, registered as an independent candidate after he was expelled along with 13 others from the party in July for participating in a motion of no confidence against Tlokwe mayor Maphetle Maphetle.
Maphetle was replaced by Democratic Alliance councillor Annette Combrink. The ANC’s national disciplinary committee overturned the expulsions, but Mahlabe decided not to return to the party.
In the 2011 local government elections, the ANC won Ward 26 with 3 403 of the 3 580 valid votes cast, which gave them an overwhelming majority of 95.06 percent of the votes.
The ANC won the by-elections in Ward 6 and Ward 18 on Wednesday. In Ward 18, the ANC faced off with another former party member and provincial chief whip, David Kham, who registered as an independent candidate.
Kham, like Mahlabe, was one of the 14 councillors expelled from the party.
ANC candidate Thapelo Skozana won with 884 to Kham’s 520 votes. The Azanian People’s Organisation’s Matladi Mofokeng received 11 votes and the UCDP’s Molebatsi Lehloo 10 votes.
A total of 3 251 people were registered to vote in Ward 18, but only 1 452 votes were cast and 27 of those were spoilt.
In 2011, the ANC won the ward with 1 859 of the 2 009 votes cast, which resulted in a 94.37 percent victory.
In Ward 6, the ANC’s Japhta Monaisa won 882 of the 1 386 valid votes cast. The Democratic Alliance’s Johann Coetzee came in second with 493 votes.
Azapo’s Lesego Malepe received six votes and UCDP’S Mawela Dinko received five votes.
A total of 4 254 people were registered to vote in Ward 6, but only 1 408 came to the polls. There were 22 spoilt votes.
In 2011, the ANC received 1 352 (64.26 percent) of the 2 104 valid votes and the DA received 720 (34.22 percent) of the votes.
Meanwhile, since the results were only provisional says the IEC, it will only release the full results later this evening.
Also on everyone’s lips is the issue of other six wards which would be contested soon, having being postponed by the electoral commission.
ANC national spokesperson, Jackson Mthembu, says the win shows the confidence the people of Tlokwe still has in the organization.
