Monthly Archives: May 2014

Early indications DA winning W Cape


Johannesburg – Preliminary election results show the DA maintaining its Western Cape stronghold, while racing neck and neck with the ANC for the city of Tshwane.

By midday on Thursday, the Electoral Commission in the Western Cape had captured over half of the votes cast.

“We have already counted 1.6 million people and that is a count out of 2.94 million [registered] people…” provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson said.

By noon the Democratic Alliance had obtained just under 60% of the vote in the Western Cape, compared to just over 50% in 2009.

The African National Congress had around 33% of the vote in the Western Cape, followed by the Economic Freedom Fighters with more than 2%.

Surpassed

The African Christian Democratic Party and Freedom Front Plus stood at a little over 1% each in the province.

The Congress of the People dropped to under 1% in the Western Cape.

DA Parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said the party was growing and making inroads in the Western Cape.

Mazibuko was excited about the lead the party had in the province…the only province not governed by the ANC.

The DA had surpassed its 2009 numbers with only half of this year’s votes counted so far.

“We are very upbeat and we are growing significantly in this election,” Mazibuko said.

Garnered

She predicted the DA would do well in Gauteng once all the stations had submitted their results.

“We will do very well once the results for Tshwane and Johannesburg are received and we had a very good premier candidate in Mmusi Maimane,” she said.

Gauteng numbers for the ANC and the DA were fairly even in the City of Tshwane.

Out of the 35 719 votes counted, the ANC secured 15 765 with 14 659 votes for the DA.

The FF Plus was a distant third in Tshwane with 6.29% of the vote (2 248), while the EFF garnered 1 881.

By midday on Thursday, the ANC was leading nationally in the election race with over four million votes, just over 62% of the counted votes.

The DA secured 1.7m votes (23.01%).

Julius Malema’s EFF was in third position with 362,063 votes (4.73%).

Midnight

Meanwhile, the IEC said results from the eThekwini metro municipality were likely to be the last to be finalised in KwaZulu-Natal.

In Durban, the province’s chief electoral officer Mosery Mawethu said counting of votes was continuing at three Durban polling stations by mid-morning.

All counting at the rest of the province’s 4 746 polling stations and capturing of the results was under way.

The final capturing of results in the province was expected to be completed by midnight on Thursday.-Sapa

ANC ‘confident’ about Gauteng results


Pretoria – The ANC is confident that it will win Gauteng comfortably, according to party national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu.

“Gauteng is the ANC’s home, we will win it,” he said to News24 at the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s national results operations centre in Pretoria on Thursday.

The ANC currently has over 380 000 votes in Gauteng, compared to just over 180 000 from its closest rival, the DA.

Meanwhile, ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte told News24 that the ANC is “on the whole very happy” with how the elections have proceeded thus far, and that things were looking positive for Gauteng.

“It’s early days yet, and we can normally see the trend after half the votes are in. There are no big surprises for us so far.”

She added that results have yet to come in from some big wards in Gauteng, so she is expecting a further improvement in the ANC’s results.
For more http://www.news24.com

ANC ‘hasn’t discussed’ W Cape coalition


Pretoria – The ANC says it has not yet considered entering into coalition talks in the Western Cape, as initial results show it is lagging significantly behind the DA in the province.

Currently, the DA has over 960 000 votes in the province, while the ANC has just over 520 000.

ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte told News24 at the IEC national results operations centre in Pretoria that the possibility of entering into a coalition “has not been discussed”.

ANC national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu reiterated what Duarte said, saying “there are no coalition talks yet”.

However, he added that the ANC’s strongholds are mostly in rural areas in the Western Cape, and many of those results are not yet in.

“We are keeping our options open,” he said.
For more http://www.news24.com

Premier Modise applauds voters for taking part in elections 


North West Premier Thandi Modise has applauded voters who came out in their numbers to exercise their democratic right in the national and provincial elections held on Wednesday.

“The high voter turnout in most areas and participation of first time voters shows confidence in participatory democracy. Beyond elections, we should sustain the enthusiasm though regular constructive engagements and feedback on implementation of government’s programmes of action in order to deepen our democracy,” Premier Modise said.

Modise said the provincial government is determined to address all issues that were brought to its attention in the run-up to the elections adding that violent protests are not the answer to addressing issues that affect communities.

“We have not received reports of employers denying workers the right to exercise their constitutional right to vote and wish to express our profound appreciation for the positive response to our earlier plea,” she said.-TDN
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Election results come in steadily


Johannesburg – Election results streamed in steadily across the country overnight and early on Thursday morning, but the two major cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town lagged behind.

Nationally, a total of over 5.4 million votes had been counted by 09:00.

The Western Cape was in a better position than Gauteng, where the metropole had reported a little vote counting by dawn and the City of Johannesburg still had to submit data.

Of the 2.9m registered voters in the Western Cape, just over 1.1m votes had been counted on the national ballot and 1.1m on the provincial ballot by 08:00.

In Gauteng, with over six million registered voters, 297 950 national ballots and 284 898 provincial ballot votes had been counted by around 07:30.

Provincial votes

And while the city of Johannesburg was moving at a snail’s pace to provide data, the Tshwane metro – with more than 1.4m registered voters – had seen less than 1 500 votes counted by about 07:30.

The Emfuleni municipality, south of Johannesburg, was also proportionately slow as 13 772 national votes and 13 511 provincial votes had been counted out of 358 891 registered voters.

Ekurhuleni, with 1 547 459 registered voters, had yet to cross the 10% mark in vote counting.

Vote counting for the other municipalities in Gauteng, including Mogale City, Lesedi, Randfontein, Midvaal, Westonaria, and Merafong City moved at a faster pace, given their smaller sizes.

Leading the election race was the African National Congress which had surpassed the three million votes mark before 09:00.

The Democratic Alliance followed with more than a million votes.

The ANC had 3.2m votes, making up 60.4% of all counted votes.

The DA had 1.3m votes, making up 25.6% of counted votes.

The Economic Freedom Fighters had 4.3% of the votes [233 226] thus far, and the Inkatha Freedom Party 2.1% [116 574].

Parties

The Freedom Front Plus secured 1.11% of the national vote [59 437] so far, and closely behind was the United Democratic Movement with 1% [54 219].

Some political parties were struggling for survival with less than a percentage point of the national vote.

The Congress of the People was standing at 0.82% [44 183], while it was not clear yet if Agang SA would have enough support to secure a seat in Parliament.

By 09:00 Agang SA had only secured 0.20% [10 841] of the national vote.

The Workers and Socialist Party stood at 0.05% [2 778 votes] and the Pan Africanist Movement 0.02% [1 342].

– SAPA

Kasrils didn’t spoil his vote – report


Johannesburg – Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils stood in a queue for over thirty minutes to cast his vote on Wednesday, according to a City Press report.

“I voted for two parties, nationally and provincially, but not the ANC or the DA,” he said.
For more http://www.news24.com

Modise: Matric top spot climax of the good story of the North West Province


The final 2013 matric results that is inclusive of supplementary exams represents the climax of the good story that the ANC led government in the North West province has delivered on key priorities in the last term, Premier Thandi Modise said on Thursday.The final National Senior Certificate Supplementary Examination Results announced by Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga last week placed the North West at the top spot ahead of the Free State that led with the preliminary results.

“The phenomenal performance from 79, 5% to 89.0% has given expression to the commitment of our Provincial Department of Education and Training to be a portrait of excellence. It is through the united action of our educators, learners, officials in the department and all stakeholders who have proved their unsurpassed commitment that this historic milestone will be sustained,” Premier Modise underscored. 

Modise said that the provincial administration has turned the tide and that its achievements have given citizens reasons to celebrate 20 years of freedom and democracy.

“Having stabilised departments to respond to the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequality, the challenge for the new administration will be on intensifying the fight against crime and turning our municipalities around to respond to the basic service delivery needs of our communities,” she stressed.-TDN
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Half-naked ‘witch’ runs out of power, crashes into stranger’s house


A suspected witch ran out of her powers and found herself at a stranger’s house.
According to myzimbabwe.co.zw, 52-year-old Ellen Khayiya Mpofu, from Bulawayo, was picked up by police after she invaded Patricia Tshabalala’s house just before 2am and claimed that her friends “dumped her”.

Tshabalala said she was asleep when she heard someone scratching the main door from outside and she rushed to check, suspecting that thieves were trying to break into her house.

“I heard what sounded like a pet scratching the door at about 2am. I listened carefully and the sound continued until I rushed to the door and asked who the visitor was. Before I could get an answer, the door was flung open and a half-naked woman, carrying a plastic bag stood before me,” said Tshabalala.

The woman, who kept on falling into a trance and changing voices, claimed she inherited the witchcraft from her sister.
For more http://www.timelive.co.za

IEC official found marking ballots for the ANC- report


“Agang knows exactly what they are supposed to do [when they have a complaint],” IEC spokeswoman Kate Bapela said.

“There is no political party in this day and age [that does not know that], that’s why all political parties that come to the IEC become part of the party liaison committee.”

The party had tweeted a photo of its leader Mamphela Ramphele where she confronted an IEC officer carrying ballot papers.

The caption with the photo read: “Citizen @MamphelaR busted an official with ballot papers in her hands. #IECMustAnswer.”

The party claimed that ballot boxes were not sealed at a station in Gauteng and an IEC official was found marking ballots for the African National Congress.

Bapela would not comment on the individual claims but said Agang SA was well aware of the procedures parties could follow when they had complaints.

She said complaints were dealt with first at local level at the particular voting station.

When it could not be resolved, it was referred to the national results centre in Pretoria where it was dealt with by a political party liaison committee. The IEC also had a legal team at the results centre.

“What they do in the event that they pick something up undesirable they lay a complaint,” Bapela said.

“If there is a complaint at a local level they can deal with it, every political party has a representative at a provincial and national level.

At national level we have a chief operating officer and deputy and a big legal team,” she said.
-Sapa

ANC reaches 1 million votes


Pretoria – The African National Congress passed the million vote mark after 04:30 on Thursday morning in the fifth democratic election in South Africa.

The early results at 04:40 showed the ANC had 1 100 891 votes, the Democratic Alliance had 623 234 votes, the Economic Freedom Fighters 73 723 votes and the United Democratic Movement 19 883 votes.

Representatives of the various political parties remained at the centre to keep an eye on the results as they continued to be updated.

The Freedom Front Plus had 26 271 votes, the Congress of the People 14 510, Inkatha Freedom Party 39 046, Agang SA 4 437 and the National Freedom Party 26 608.

The Workers Socialist Party had 1 007 votes, the African Christian Democratic Party 13 721, the African Independent Congress 11 244 and the African Peoples Convention had 3 353 votes.

Al Jama-Ah had 4 501 votes, Azanian Peoples Organisation 2 030, Bushbuckridge Residents Association 1 234, First Nation Liberation Alliance 491 and the Front National 662.

The Independent Civic Organisation of SA had 3 397 votes, Keep It Straight and Simple 414, Kingdom Governance Movement 752, Minority Front 1 135, and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania had 3 293 votes.

The Pan Africanist Movement had 435, Patriotic Alliance 3 732, Peoples Alliance 226, the Ubuntu Party 980, the United Christian Democratic Party 1 661, and the United Congress had 313 votes.-Sapa