The votes have been tallied and the Democratic Alliance (DA) has held onto their lead in the Western Cape with 55.45%. The African National Congress (ANC) came in second place with 28.65% of the votes and the Economic Freedom Fighters with 4.04% of the votes.
Patricia de Lille’s new Party GOOD secured 3.01% of the Wesrern Cape vote and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) came in fifth with 2.66%.
Alan Winde, premier elect from the DA, said the party was grateful to voters who came out in their thousands to vote on Wednesday May 8, “despite the rain and Independent Electoral Commission difficulties”.
“We thank you for placing your trust in the DA – we won’t take your vote for granted and will use it responsibly. We will keep fighting for you, and will deliver on our promise to residents. We will keep growing the economy to deliver more jobs for our people. We will fight for a provincial police service, so that the Western Cape receives the police resources it deserves. And we will fight to run a provincial train service that works and runs on time,” said Mr Winde.
Bonginkosi Madikizela, DA Western Cape leader, said this is not the time to gloat. “Instead it’s a time to reflect, and take in everything our voters said during the campaign. It is time to implement our manifesto with precision, be on the ground and keep our voters informed. There must be less focus internally and we must put them first. We are busy doing proper analysis of these results to see where we can improve,” he said.
Faiez Jacobs, ANC provincial secretary, thanked those people who voted for the ANC.
“We are grateful to those former ANC voters who returned and resolved to give us another chance. We won’t let you down. We pledge that we will honour your trust by going into the Western Cape Legislature as the official opposition that will play a watchdog and activist role.
“We congratulate the DA on its win but we put Allan Winde on notice that we will be watching them closely to ensure that they govern the province in the interest of all of our communities instead of for a few,” he said.
Mr Jacobs said the party will continue to build non-racialism, unity, non-sexism and equal social economic rights for all.
“We are still committed to get rid of the divisive negative politics that the DA used in their campaigning to divide black, coloured and white. This scare tactic might have short dividends but in the long term, it produces a bitter harvest. We do not want different groups resenting each other.
“Our time to govern again is near. We will return as the government of the Western Cape; it’s only a matter of time. To begin that journey we will hold a thorough assessment of what went wrong in our campaign. I have issued an instruction that this process must begin,” said Mr Jacobs.