“The work starts now.” These were the words of Western Cape premier Alan Winde on Friday after it was confirmed the DA would retain its majority in the province.
On the official tally, the party won 55.3% of the vote, based on a 58.64% voter turnout in the province’s 1,572 voting districts. It was followed by the ANC with 19.55% and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) with 7.8%.
With the DA firmly in charge, Winde is set to remain premier for the next five years. “I’m grateful and honoured,” he tells the FM. “I think we’ve built a track record and I’m happy that the track record is recognised. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved in this province. That makes you feel good.”
Winde says he has been listening to people across the province for the past three months. “You’ve got a manifesto but that gets adjusted during the campaign.”
He believes coalition governments in other provinces will be a good thing. “Those coalitions are going to help us have proper, robust debates and not just [have] me shouting and nobody else wanting to listen. I think that’s going to make a difference in the next five years. I just hope that there’s stability in those coalitions.
“The coalitions that we’ve had here in the municipalities are not stable and that’s difficult. We’ll probably have to change our constitution now to accommodate coalition governments [so] it gives you time after an election to put a proper, meaningful coalition together,” he adds.
The PA, while not new, was one of the fastest-growing parties in the poll. From not featuring on the leaderboard in 2019, it’s now the third-biggest party in the province. “We are quite happy about the outcomes,” says William Farmer, a PA leader in the Western Cape. He says the party will hold those in power accountable.
“Most of our votes came from the rural areas because they believe that the PA is the alternative for them,” he says.
“We are going to thank our members for believing in us. We are going to have some celebrations. Our national leadership will engage in possible coalition talks.”
Meanwhile, Al Jama-ah’s Shameemah Salie says the party raised some concerns with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) regarding the voting process.
“At some voting districts, they would allow your seniors to go and at other voting districts they expected the seniors to stand in the queue. There were no facilities for people to relieve themselves, people would go home because there was no place for them to go to the bathroom. We are still sitting with the same problems. Every single political party has faced such a situation.”
Salie calls on voters to hold their parties accountable. “You can’t just make your cross, walk away and think that party is going to do the work,” she says.
Those coalitions are going to help us have proper, robust debates and not just [have] me shouting and nobody else wanting to listen. I think that’s going to make a difference in the next five years
— Alan Winde
The voting process wasn’t without controversy. On Friday evening, 17 political parties signed a letter calling for the IEC to extend the period of objections after concerns were raised about discrepancies. Some party agents claimed the numbers on the IEC website didn’t match those on the voting slips.
The objection deadline was subsequently extended to 6pm on Saturday.
Then, when the DA crossed the 1-million vote mark in the province, cheers were heard from their officials. They went on stage to celebrate and speak to the media but were interrupted with chants of “stolen vote”. The most vocally upset were party agents from the EFF and MK Party.
Independent candidate Zackie Achmat was one of the people who signed the letter to the IEC in the Western Cape. He later withdrew his name.
“The IEC has declared me a loser and I fully accept that result. What is important for me is our country requires stability and it requires decent leadership. Right now, the attempts in the Western Cape by certain parties are undermining the credibility of the elections,” he said.
“I regret putting my name on the same letter as MK and others. They are using legitimate objections, unlikely to materially affect the election result, to undermine democracy itself. It is our duty to be mature and to understand that our country now needs cool heads. I want all of us to work together to make sure that the constitution is implemented and move in the direction of fixing the state.”
During a briefing at the provincial results centre on Saturday evening, provincial electoral officer Michael Hendrickse thanked IEC staff. “This has been a long and hard campaign and, to a large extent, there has been no serious transgressions of our code of conduct.
“I know that we didn’t always deliver a perfect election to you. For many of you, your experience wasn’t what [you deserve]. For that, I again apologise.”
The objections, he said, would be dealt with by the national office.
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