The African National Congress (ANC) vowed on Thursday "not to lose hope" after the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) wrested the Mitchell's Plain ward in the Western Cape from the ruling party in municipal by-elections.

"The ANC recognises the scale of the challenge of regaining support it has lost in the Western Cape," said national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu in a statement.

"We will not lose hope owing to the loss of one ward to the DA. We are determined and confident that should we redouble our efforts, we will effectively rebuild our support in the Western Cape."

The ANC lost support in eight wards, mainly in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Western Cape in Wednesday's municipal by-elections.

However, it gained voters in another eight wards, the majority of them in the Free State.

The ANC also wrested a ward from the Inkatha Freedom Party in KwaZulu-Natal.

Mthembu congratulated its members for ANC victories in 19 wards.

"We are particularly, happy for having retained all but one of the 18 wards we won in 2006 and having gained two new wards," he said.

According to results posted on the Independent Electoral Commission's (IEC) website on Thursday, the ANC won in 19 of the 26 wards countrywide.

The IFP won in three wards and the DA won in four wards, in the Western Cape and North West provinces.

In KwaZulu-Natal the IFP lost significant support in the three wards it retained, compared to the last local government elections in 2006.

In all three wards, Mangosuthu Buthelezi's traditional Zulu party saw its support drop by around 20%, even in its historical strongholds of Nongoma and Ulundi.

The ANC took the Umthonjaneni ward from the IFP with 57,6% of the vote.

But while the ANC could celebrate successes in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, where it won in all eight wards, including a ward in Naledi that was previously held by an independent candidate, its results in other provinces were more sobering.

The ANC experienced slight increases in its support in the Free State, but its losses in Mpumalanga and the Western Cape were significant.

In the Eastern Cape, it won in all three wards but support was slightly down.

However, the ANC saw serious drops in support in all three wards in Mpumalanga - in the case of Mkhondo, by nearly 20%.

In the Western Cape, the DA won in three of the six wards. This included it wresting a ward in the City of Cape Town from the ANC. In the last local government elections, the ANC had won 43% of the vote there, but on Wednesday, the DA won nearly 52% of the vote.

The ANC won in three of the six Western Cape wards, but lost support in two of those, by 20 percent and 11% respectively in the two City of Cape Town wards. But the ruling party gained about eight percent support in the third City of Cape Town ward it won.

The DA's three ward victories were all gains - one was taken from the ANC in Mitchell's Plain and two others from the Independent Civic Organisation of SA.

DA CEO Jonathan Moakes said that the party's successes showed that it was a viable alternative to the current government.

"Ahead of next year's local government elections, the message is clear: where the DA governs, it delivers better services than the ANC, for all of the people; and so, increasingly, people are turning to the DA and rejecting the ANC.

"This [Mitchell's Plain] is the seventh ward the DA has won off the ANC since April last year, and the sixth in the Western Cape. Elsewhere, the DA held and grew its support in every by-election it contested," said Moakes.

The DA also won in the only North West ward where by-elections took place. It increased its support in Madibeng, Brits by 22%.

A total of 52 551 votes were cast in the 26 by-elections.

That is 33,4% of the total number of 157 337 registered voters in those wards.