Africa-Press – South-Africa. On Wednesday, a crucial by-election in Ennerdale, Gauteng, will see a close race between the ANC and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) amplified after the DA candidate in the Ward 7 election withdrew under suspicious circumstances.
Ward 7, comprising Ennerdale, Finetown and Meriting, was a hive of intense political campaigning at the weekend.
ANC provincial secretary Thembinkosi Nciza was out luring voters while distributing ANC regalia, and was joined by ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane.
ActionSA put up campaign posters which said a vote for the ANC equalled an endorsement of its coalition partners.
“Vote ANC, get Al Jama-ah. Vote PA get ANC,” read ActionSA’s posters.
The party meanwhile styled itself as a party of action.
The missing political factor for this election is the DA, after Randell Markgraaff withdrew his nomination on 16 June, days after the candidate selection process had closed. He resigned after a meeting with Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie.
News24 previously reported that DA campaign manager Nicola du Plessis said Markgraaff had indicated to her last week that Mckenzie had requested a meeting with him through an intermediary. Ahead of the meeting, Markgraaff had also mentioned to Du Plessis that he knew McKenzie was known to have offered “R5 million with a promised relocation to Cape Town with his wife and daughter”.
Markgraaff will remain on the ballot, but a vote for him will not be considered a win as his withdrawal means any vote cast for him will be wasted.
Elections monitoring expert Wayne Sussman told News24 that Markgraaff’s withdrawal might benefit the PA or ActionSA if voters lean heavily towards either to compensate for the DA’s absence.
In 2021, the PA came in second in the municipal elections, losing marginally to the ANC. Sussman said the PA did not win the ward because of votes cast for the DA.
“The key thing is the DA candidate standing down because this is unprecedented. This means the DA remains on the ballot, and what is that going to mean? This is a very close election. The ANC narrowly beat the PA the last time, and if the DA is not a factor and ActionSA does not pick up those DA votes, the PA has a good chance of winning this by-election from the ANC.
“The PA has beaten the DA in by-elections in the south of Johannesburg. It is a big by-election for it. ActionSA has also put a lot of effort into this. Its slogan is ‘a vote for the ANC is a vote for Al Jama-ah, and a vote for the PA is a vote for the ANC’.
“You would expect ActionSA to gain because the party that [it] is most similar to the DA on the ballot, not the PA. The DA came in third here in 2021 with 12% of the vote,” Sussman told News24.
“What cost the PA the last time was that the DA came third. With the DA not being a factor, you would expect the PA to do better in Ennerdale and stand a better chance of winning the ward, so it will be a very interesting election for the PA,” he said.
If the DA candidate ‘wins’ the by-election then another by-election will have to be held for a replacement candidate, according to the Electoral Commission of SA rules.
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