The DA (Democratic Alliance) defended three seats this week, coming up short in a marginal ward in Bela Bela in Limpopo, but comfortably holding seats in Metsimaholo in Limpopo and Lekwa in Mpumalanga.

Ward 9 (Spa Park Radium Masakhane) in Bela-Bela in Limpopo ANC 48% (41%) DA 46% (49%) EFF 5% (7%) Cope 1%

The ANC (African National Congress) needed a 5% swing in this by- election to win the ward from the DA and triumphed here by 49 votes on Tuesday night. This is a diverse ward which has seven voting districts and includes a suburb of Bela-Bela-Spa Park, the rural settlement of Radium Masakhane, the plots and small holdings of Noodhulp, and the remote settlement of Vingerkraal, whereApartheid-era soldiers of the counter-insurgency Koevoet unit live.

The results were in the main similar to those of 2016. In the largest voting district of Spa Park, support for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) collapsed from 13% to 3% as both the ANC and the DA seemed to benefit. The ANC and the DA both received more votes in this voting district than they did in 2016. Even though the DA's vote share went up from 27% to 37% in the...