Rustenburg - The ANC has dipped below the 50% threshold in two North West municipalities.
According to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) election result dashboard, the ANC won the JB Marks Municipality with 48% of the votes, while in Lekwa-Teemane it retained the municipality with a reduced majority, obtaining 48.17% of the votes.
Rustenburg was the only hung municipality in the North West in the 2016 municipal elections after the ANC failed to win an outright majority to take control of the municipality.
The ANC won 43 seats out of 89 council seats, and went into coalition with the Botho Community Movement, a community-based organisation from Boitekong which won one seat, and the African Independent Congress, which also won one seat.
By 6.50pm on Wednesday, the ANC was leading in Rustenburg with 48.93% of the counted votes and had won 19 seats, the EFF had 18.86% of the votes, and the DA had 10.49% of the counted votes with three seats.
The ANC also reclaimed ward 28 in Rustenburg from the EFF. The ANC lost ward 28 in Lethabong 10 years ago after the community-preferred candidate Pako Molatlhegi was not included in the ANC candidates list.
Molatlhegi contested the election as an independent candidate and snatched the ward from the ANC. He won the ward again in the 2016 on the EFF ticket.
Despite failing to score an outright majority in two municipalities, the ANC held a comfortable lead across the North West, leading with 55.29% of the counted votes. It has won 307 council seats and controls 11 municipalities.
The EFF was second with 16.54% of the votes and the DA a distant third with 11.36% of the counted votes. It won 51 seats across North West municipalities.
IOL