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Yesterday, the DA achieved significant successes in all four by-elections it contested across the country. We retained all three DA wards with increased majorities and tripled our share of the vote in the ANC’s Govan Mbeki stronghold in Mpumalanga.

This is a clear indication that our party continues to grow in all communities across South Africa.

In each of these wards, the DA’s proportion of the votes has grown with every election since 2009, whilst the ANC’s proportion of the vote is steadily decreasing or stagnating. Here are the numbers:

Govan Mbeki (Mpumalanga)
DA ANC
2009 National Election:
0.76% 95.36%
2011 Local Government Election:
10.81% 87.47%
2012 By-election:
30.55% 68.59%

Ngwathe (Free State)
DA ANC
2009 National Election:
55.67% 24.18%
2011 Local Government Election:
82.98% 10.02%
2012 By-election:
89.7% 3.15%

Abaqulusi (Kwazulu-Natal)
DA ANC
2009 National Election:
56.7% 21.59%
2011 Local Government Election:
57.25% 20.66%
2012 By-election:
72.75% 20.69%

Swartland (Western Cape)
DA ANC
2009 National Election:
different ward boundaries

2011 Local Government Election
68.4% 24.15%
2012 By-election
71.3% 27.53%

The result in Govan Mbeki is particularly significant. This ward has always been a stronghold for the ANC, but as the statistics indicate, the DA is steadily increasing its share of the vote at the ANC’s expense.

These results confirm the continuation of a trend we saw in the 2011 local government elections: Voters are switching their support from the ANC to the DA.

The trend is set to continue into the 2014 elections and the DA is preparing to make further inroads across the country.