SEDIBENG – The ANC is refusing to accept a humiliating defeat after the DA snatched one of its strongest township bastions by just eight votes.

Now the ruling party has dragged the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to court, claiming the by-election in Evaton’s Ward 28 was held using an unlawful voters’ roll.

The May by-election sent shockwaves through Emfuleni after the DA won its first-ever fully black ward in the municipality.

Speaking during a press conference at Luthuli House in Johannesburg, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula insisted the legal challenge was not about refusing to lose.

“We are before the Electoral Court in our challenge to the IEC over the by-election in Ward 28 of Emfuleni, which was decided by a mere eight votes on a roll that could not lawfully be placed in that ward. This is not sour grapes; it is about protecting the integrity of the voters’ roll,” said Mbalula.

DA Federal Council chairperson Ashor Sarupen accused the ANC of looking for excuses instead of facing the truth.

“The ANC cannot accept that people in one of its traditional strongholds rejected it,” he said.

He said years of corruption, collapsing services and broken promises had finally pushed frustrated residents to vote for change.

“The Emfuleni result is just the beginning. Communities across South Africa are turning to the DA because they want accountable government, working municipalities and safer neighbourhoods,” said Sarupen.

He warned that the ANC should brace itself for more electoral heartbreak when South Africans head to the polls on November 4.

“The ANC cannot litigate its way back into the hearts of South Africans. Emfuleni is the first of many losses the ANC must prepare itself to accept,” he said.