{"id":90041,"date":"2025-09-18T19:30:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election"},"modified":"2025-09-18T19:34:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:34:44","slug":"da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election","title":{"rendered":"DA Defends Ward 64 in eThekwini By-Election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The DA made light work of the MK Party\u2019s challenge to secure a commanding win in eThekwini\u2019s ward 64 by-election by more than 2,000 votes on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The DA received 63% of the votes to retain the south Durban ward \u2014 which incorporates parts of Montclair, Clairwood and Yellowwood Park \u2014 ahead of its nearest challenger, the MK Party (MKP), which garnered 22%.<\/p>\n<p>The ward was expected to be competitive between the two parties, with the MKP having narrowly edged ahead of the DA in the national ballot last year while the latter prevailed in the provincial ballot.<\/p>\n<p>However, the DA won all eight voting districts on Wednesday \u2014 including the three in Montclair the MKP had won in 2024 \u2014 to see its candidate Norman Gilbert emerge ahead of Stanley Dlamini as the new ward councillor.<\/p>\n<p>DA provincial leader Francois Rodgers said the outcome was a rejection of parties like the MKP which he said were \u201cpolitically divisive\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not only a victory for our party but also a rejection of the MK Party \u2014 a party that seeks to divide communities. Today this was rejected by voters in Ward 64,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe voters of ward 64 have spoken. They have said no to the small parties who only want to divide our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that their victory also highlighted growing support for the party amid voters&#8217; frustrations about service delivery challenges in the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe DA continues to build support and confidence from communities that are tired of ANC empty promises, a dysfunctional city and no service delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers, along with provincial chairperson Dean Macpherson, joined the party\u2019s final push to defend the ward on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The MKP had also deployed its big guns from its provincial leadership including award-winning actor-turned-politician Sibonile Ngubane.<\/p>\n<p>The seat became vacant when DA councillor Gavin Hegter resigned at the end of June, while facing a court case for allegedly assaulting a ward resident.<\/p>\n<p>Macpherson said at the time Hegter had stepped down to focus on his recovery and to spend time with his family after experiencing health issues.<\/p>\n<p>Hegter is alleged to have hit a Mncedisi Dlamini in the mouth with a torch after an argument in Yellowwood Park in November 2024.<\/p>\n<p>A state witness who is the alleged victim\u2019s brother, Lindiwe Dlamini, said in his testimony last week Hegter had allegedly become upset when he saw Mncedisi wearing an MKP T-shirt.<\/p>\n<p>Hegter denied this, saying he was politically tolerant of other parties. He has also denied assaulting the victim but his attempt to have the case thrown out was dismissed in August. He is due to appear in the Durban high court at the beginning of October for cross-examination.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Rodgers revealed the DA will announce its mayoral candidate for eThekwini next week as the party gears up for the 2026 local government elections.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The DA made light work of the MK Party\u2019s challenge to secure a commanding win in eThekwini\u2019s ward 64 by-election by more than 2,000 votes on Wednesday. The DA received 63% of the votes to retain the south Durban ward \u2014 which incorporates parts of Montclair, Clairwood and Yellowwood Park \u2014 ahead [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":90039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-90041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>DA Defends Ward 64 in eThekwini By-Election - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The DA made light work of the MK Party\u2019s challenge to secure a commanding win in eThekwini\u2019s ward 64 by-election by more ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DA Defends Ward 64 in eThekwini By-Election\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The DA made light work of the MK Party\u2019s challenge to secure a commanding win in eThekwini\u2019s ward 64 by-election by more ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-18T19:30:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-18T19:34:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1758211456.166267.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"DA Defends Ward 64 in eThekwini By-Election\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-18T19:30:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-18T19:34:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election\"},\"wordCount\":484,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1758211456.166267.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-defends-ward-64-in-ethekwini-by-election\",\"name\":\"DA Defends Ward 64 in eThekwini By-Election - 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