By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
- The Thabazimbi municipality remains hung after the by-election, with the ANC lacking a majority despite winning 10 of 12 wards.
- Political instability persists, with a history of poor governance, unpaid workers, and no clean water access, despite the town’s economic potential.
After a hard fought by-election in the mining town of Thabazimbi in Limpopo, no political party has been able to secure a clear majority.
This means that once again, the municipality is hung.
Unfortunately it was the absence of a clear winner in the 2021 municipal elections that led to instability in this important town in the Waterberg district.
Thabazimbi is one of the few towns with industrial and mining activity in the province and has a huge potential for growing the regional economy and creating jobs.
But its municipality is among the worst run councils in the country.
When it was dissolved in October, the council had two mayors, two municipal managers and had failed to pay its workers for over three months.
Despite all its potential, local communities have no access to clean drinking water.
After the by-election on Wednesday, the ANC won 10 of the 12 wards in Thabazimbi Local Municipality but that is not enough to govern the iron ore mining town.
Overall the ANC received just under 40% of the vote, meaning it will need to partner up with other parties to form a governing council.
The DA which is the ANC’s partner in the government of national unity has one ward, three seats in council and 16% of the vote.
But the ANC and DA partnership for stable governance in municipalities collapsed when the ANC ganged up with other parties to remove Cilliers Brink, then-DA mayor of Tshwane.
Even though the EFF did not win any ward, it has three proportional representation seats in the council while the MK party has one PR seat.
Both the EFF and the MK party are outside of the GNU, but the EFF votes with the ANC in some municipalities.
Pictured above: Voting in full swing in Thabazimbi, but still the municipality is hung.
Source: IEC
