MK wins ANC's ward

Candidate receives 43% of the ballots, against the ruling party’s 33%.

- Eric Naki

Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party won an ANC safe ward in its stronghold in Rustenburg in what some community members see as voters' punishment for the ANC decision to remove community-chosen councillors in the 2021 local government elections.

At that time, the ANC removed candidates who were nominated by communities and placed political connected individuals on its municipal lists.

The Kgalema Motlanthe electoral committee investigated the matter and recommended the list should be rectified, but some communities were not satisfied by the report's implementation.

Ward 45 in the Rustenburg municipality is a crucial constituency for the ANC and is also the home ward of the Rustenburg mayor, Sheila Mabale-Huna.

But MK candidate Thabiso Molefe easily won the ward with a huge margin against ANC candidate Nomziwakhe Ntsoeu and Thabo Modimokwane of the EFF in Wednesday's by-election.