A BREAKAWAY faction of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party recorded a significant victory yesterday when it won 10 out of 27 seats previously held by the ruling party in the Western Cape provincial byelections.
In its first real test since the party formed last month, the Congress of the People (Cope) contributed to opposition parties dealing the ANC a considerable blow. The ruling party lost all but three of the seats it held before voters went to the polls on Wednesday.
The provincial byelections were caused by the resignation or expulsion of mainly ANC ward councillors from the ruling party because of their allegiance to Cope, which will only be officially instituted at the weekend at its inaugural conference.
The new party was formed by disgruntled members of the ANC after the sacking of former South African president Thabo Mbeki by the ruling party's national executive in September. Since then it has attracted defections from all parties, vowing to take on the ANC in next year's general election.
The result has further weakened the ruling party in a province it has been unable to win an outright majority in since the first democratic elections in 1994.
The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) controls the provincial capital, Cape Town.
Cope party candidates contested the elections as independent candidates because the new political formation is still in the process of registering as an official party. Cope's Western Cape spokesman, Mbulelo Ncedana, said the new organisation was "very happy" with the results.
The other big winner in the election was the DA, which won nine of the vacant seats. DA provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson said of the eight wards in the city of Cape Town, six were won by independent candidates (Cope) and two by the DA.
Outside of Cape Town, the DA won seven wards, the Independent Democrats won five, independent candidates (Cope) won four and the ANC won three. The ANC was considerably disadvantaged because it was unable to contest 12 of the 27 wards as it failed to submit its candidate list on time.
DA leader Helen Zille said the results showed Cope was splitting the ANC vote: "Cope is not eating into the DA's support base."
The ANC has ruled Africa's biggest economy with a huge parliamentary majority since the end of apartheid in 1994.