THE hotly contested City of Cape Town is among two municipal councils whose results are outstanding as voter counts stand at more than 78% in the Western Cape.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) provincial results centre in Century City is a hive of activity with parties's keeping a watchful eye as the final results continue to trickle in.
The Cape Town metro and Breede Valley are the only municipalities whose final results are outstanding. Both councils used to be controlled by the DA.
DA’s interim provincial leader Albert Fritz said he was confident the party would be able to maintain control of the City with at least a 55% majority.
By 10am, 15 councils were hung with no one party able to obtain an outright majority, while the DA was able to win eight councils which include, Hessequa, Mossel Bay, Overstrand, Stellenbosch, Swellendam, Drakenstein, Bergriver and Swartland Municipality.
Former DA controlled councils that are now hung include Theewaterskloof, Cape Agulhas and George municipality.
Based on verified results, voter turnout for the Western Cape is estimated at just over 51% from 3.1million registered voters.
Good Party’s Brett Herron said they were happy with the results so far. They would wait for the final outcomes before decisions are made on coalition agreements. But added that so far, no party had been excluded from forming coalition governments.
The Freedom Front Plus, which also gained major support, said they too were pleased with either an increase in seats in key municipalities or the gain of seats in others where they previous had none.
The party’s Erika Botha-Rossouw said they would keep an eye on the remaining councils to gage their performance.