May 20, 2011
The Democratic Alliance has won wards consisting only of black voters, party leader Helen Zille said on Friday.
"We have won, for the first time, wards with 100 percent black voters in them and that was the watershed I was looking for," she told journalists at the IEC results centre in Pretoria.
The DA sought to "consciously and deliberately" extend its support base in black communities.
The party faired well in the country's fourth post-democracy local government election, claiming 24.1 percent of the vote so far -- a vast improvement on its 2006 result.
DA North West leader Chris Hattingh later said one such ward was Ward 6, Vrisgewagdt, in the Tswaing Municipality.
The councillor candidate for the area David Malo, practically "ran his own campaign" in the ward.
The DA won the ward, garnering 3008 votes (49.42 percent), compared to the ANC's 2910 votes (47.81 percent), according to results released by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
Zille said the ANC had become a "racial national party", while the DA was an "open opportunity party" which promoted diversity.
She described this as a "tragic irony" and again accused the ANC of "abandoning (former president) Nelson Mandela's vision".
The DA's support in this election increased by eight percent over the 2006 result, according to information supplied by the party.
The party said its share of black support increased from about one percent in the 2009 national election to five percent in this election -- which was at local level.
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