- Big win for ANC in Fetakgomo-Tubatse - September 3, 2025
By Karabo Makao
The ANC has scored a big win in this wednesday’s by-election in Ward 34 of Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality.
The impressive performance by the ANC comes amid a low turnout with only 48 registered voters having cast their votes across ten voting stations.
ANC candidate Mahlatse Mathipa secured 79 % of the vote with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) following with 15 %.
The ANC grew by 3 % having obtained 76 % in the 2021 local government elections.
Relatively unknown Defenders of the People (DOP) got 4 % and the SACP a dismal 1%, the same as the Bolsheviks party. The ANC also won in a by-election in eMalahleni Mpumalanga and the party said in a statement that decisive victories in the two wards are testimony that it remains the party of choice for majority of South Africans.
“ These results unequivocally reaffirm that the ANC is the dependable choice of the people which is
firmly rooted in their struggles, hopes, and determination for a better life,” said the ANC in a statement released by national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri.
The party said the results would serve to boost morale ahead of a crucial meeting of the National Executive Committee, the highest decision making body in between conferences set to kickstart preparations for the next local government elections expected to take place sometime in 2026.
“ These victories come as a powerful prelude to the Special National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Local Government and the Roll Call of Councillors Meeting. At this critical gathering, we will redefine the ANC agenda for service delivery, sharpen our interventions, and accelerate the pace of development in line with our renewal mandate,” said the ANC.
Despite a consistent decline in electoral support for the ANC in South Africa’s urban areas, the party remains in dominant in Sekhukhune and elsewhere in Limpopo.
The SACP which plans to contest the next elections independently having baked the tripartite alliance partner ANC over the three decades of democratic South Africa was contesting in a second by-election in Limpopo and once again failed to make any mark.
“ The ANC are totally dominant in a by-election in the 3rd most populous municipality in Limpopo
SACP fail to lift off again in Limpopo,” said election specialist Wayne Sussman in his analysis of the by-election results.
