The municipal by-election will be held on Wednesday 22 February 2023 in Roodepan, with the special votes taking place on Tuesday 21 February 2023. 

In the November 2021 elections, the ANC had the majority of seats in the council, with 50.2%. The DA made up 20.5% with a total of 14 seats.

The ANC might be walking on the edge as it faces the potential to lose the majority of its voters. Many residents are left disgruntled as the municipality is plagued with sewage spillages, poor road conditions, and water crises.

The DA’s Fawzia Rhode said there is great potential to bring about change in the governance of the municipality if the opposition has the majority votes against the ruling party.

She said this year’s by-election is of critical importance to the DA so that residents of Sol Plaatje get to experience clean governance similar to that of the DA-ruled city of Cape Town in the Western Cape.

Previously, the DA accused the ruling party of “blurring the lines between party and state”, for allegedly using state resources to buy votes when they decided to fix some of the pothole-riddled roads in Kimberley.

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Platfontein and Roodepan in Ward 1 "have sprung to life" just days before the Sol Plaatje by-election on 22 February 2023. The ANC is being accused of "hauling out government machinery and supplies to win votes in a desperate attempt to retain power" in the Northern Cape’s capital. 

"We are planning to take action against the ANC’s mockery of free and fair elections by holding the government accountable for deliberately blurring the lines between party and state," Rhode said.

Meanwhile, the ANC’s Tshepo Louw says when the party fixes roads it will be the ANC programme. However, there should be no confusion between the party and the state as the municipality has a normal routine to execute its work, which is to maintain service delivery and respond to service delivery issues.

Louw said they expect to retain ward one as the party has been working tirelessly to secure the interest of the voters. He said the party understands the struggles of the people of the ward and are confident that they will win the by-elections on Wednesday.

“We are the liberators of the masses. So, we need to retain this ward to continue to serve the people of ward one,” Louw said.

OFM News/Bambatha Giko