Fragmented opposition robs DA
Opposition in the Mpumalanga legislature has grown from three seats to six, with the DA obtaining three, the EFF two and the Bushbuckridge Residents Association (BRA), one.
The ANC won 22 seats in the provincial poll while the FF+ just missed out on a seat with 11 018 votes, falling 4000 votes short of the 15 000 benchmark this year.
The ANC’s list is comprised of mostly incumbent legislators.
For the BRA, the seat means a welcome financial injection for the association to formalize into a political party, rather than a mere lobby group in its current form as a residents association.
Without proper financial management, BRA could walk the same path as Cope who gained a single seat in the 2009 elections.
A dark cloud of financial mismanagement is still hanging over Zale Madonsela, Cope’s 2009 candidate, who is yet to provide a balanced report on unaccounted for constituency, and caucus funds.
The DA gained one extra seat in the legislature with two Steve Tshwete locals, Anthony Benadie (DA leader) and Bosman Grobler (former district council councillor) taking the first and thirds.
Jane Sithole will take up her seat for the DA.
Four Mpumalanga residents will head to parliament under the DA banner, they are James Masongo (Secunda), Tarnia Baker (Secunda), Sonja Boshoff (Lydenburg) and Henro Kruger (eMalahleni).
The DA also gained one seat in the second house of parliament, the National Council of Provinces, and the candidate will be announced following a brain scrum by the party’s federal executive.
The DA lost 22 000 votes, and another seat, to the FF+, ACDP, Cope and Agang whose voters expressed their democratic right.
In total the DA lost 109 000 votes provincially to all the opposition parties combined.
Of the 400 seats in parliament, the ANC got 249, the DA 89, the EFF 25, followed by the IFP with 10, the NFP with 6, the UDM and FF+ with four each and Cope, the ACDP and the AIC with three seats each.
New kid on the block, Agang, obtained two parliamentary seats while the PAC and APC each won a single seat.
Nationally, the ANC garnered 62,15% of all votes compared to the DA’s 22,23%.
Provincially, the DA obtained 10,4% of votes compared to the ANC’s landslide victory of 78,23%.
