Results from municipal ward by-elections around the country signal the start of the ruling ANC's "implosion", Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday.

"After this week's by-elections, the worn-out smear -- that the DA is a 'white' party -- loses all credence," she said in her party's weekly newsletter, published on the DA's SA Today website.

In the Western Cape, the DA had won nine out of 18 wards previously held by the African National Congress.

"Altogether, the ANC lost 25 out of 27 wards which it had previously controlled in the province," she said.

According to the Independent Electoral Commission, of the 41 municipal wards contested in five provinces on Thursday, the ANC and the DA both won 11, a further 10 went to independent candidates, and the Independent Democrats and Inkatha Freedom party won five and four respectively.

"Voter turnout varied between 8.45 percent and 59.26 percent, with an average of 26.42 percent," the IEC said.

Zille said her party had recorded "a significant increase" in support among black voters in areas such as Kosovo and Langa in Cape Town, and among coloured voters in Mitchell's Plain.

"The by-election results show that we are on track to win the
Western Cape in 2009; that we are gaining voters who have not historically supported us, but who share our values; and that we are consolidating the support of our traditional voters."

She said coalition-driven realignments would eventually lead to the ANC losing power at all levels of government.

"There are encouraging signs (reinforced by the by-elections) that we will win the Western Cape and possibly take power from the ANC in some other provinces after the 2009 election."

The by-elections results were "the start of the ANC's implosion and the DA's consolidation as a party of government, with growing support from South Africans of all races", Zille said.