Six by-elections were held across the country on Wednesday, with the Patriotic Alliance (PA) winning a seat off the African National Congress (ANC) in the Eastern Cape, while the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) won three seats in KwaZulu-Natal.

In the Dr Beyers Naudé Municipality (Graaff-Reinet) the PA won its first seat in the municipality.

In that by-election it won a ward off the ANC, with the PA winning exactly 1 000 votes, equivalent to 40% of the vote, enough to give it the victory. In the 2021 local government elections (LGE) in the ward it had not won a single vote.

The Democratic Alliance was the runner-up, with 848 votes (or 34%). The ANC was third, with 482 votes, just under a fifth of the total vote. The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) also fielded a candidate, who won 158 votes (6%).

If the FF+ had not fielded a candidate it is likely that the DA would have won the ward, as FF+ voters would in all likelihood support the DA rather than the ANC or PA.

There were two other by-elections in the Eastern Cape.

The first was in Buffalo City (East London). Here the ANC easily defended a seat, winning 80% of the vote on Wednesday, up from 68% in the LGE. The only challengers were the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) (which won 12%) and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK), which won 3%.

The second was in Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Local Municipality (Mbizana) in the far east of the province, on the border with KwaZulu-Natal. Here the ANC again defended a seat fairly easily, winning 63% of the vote, against the 65% it won in the 2021 LGE. The EFF also fielded a candidate, who won 9%, with the African Transformation Movement and South African Communist Party winning 11% and 12%, respectively.

There were also three by-elections held in KwaZulu-Natal, two in Nongoma and one in Abaqulusi. The two municipalities border each other and are in the north of the province.

In the first of the two by-elections in Nongoma, the IFP took a seat off the National Freedom Party (NFP). The IFP won 55%, up from the 31% it won in the 2021 LGE. The NFP saw its vote share tumble from 53% to 13%. The ANC and MK each fielded a candidate, who won 9% and 21%, respectively.

The second by-election in Nongoma was the second to be held in that particular ward since the 2021 LGE. In 2022, the NFP had successfully won a seat off the IFP. However, on Wednesday the IFP avenged this defeat, winning the seat with 47% of the vote, up from the 36% it won in the 2022 by-election. The NFP saw its vote crash, winning 8%, against the 37% it won in 2022. MK was the primary challenger, with 32%, while the ANC won 8% and the EFF 3%.

In Abaqulusi, the by-election was the second to be held in the ward since the 2021 LGE.

In that first by-election, which was held in 2023, the ANC had defended the ward successfully. However, in the most recent by-election the IFP took the ward off the ANC, winning 63% of the vote against the ANC’s 20%. MK won 13% while the EFF won 4%. This is a significant decline for the ANC in that ward, as it won 58% in the ward in the 2021 LGE and 52% in the 2023 by-election.