[imagesource: Veli Nhlapo]

The results of yesterday’s by-elections are still being tallied.

Hey, you only need to look at the US right now to know that taking a day or two could still be considered rapid.

Dubbed Super Wednesday, there were around 100 wards across the country being contested, with the by-elections give political parties a good opportunity to sharpen their swords ahead of next year’s local government elections.

They also give us some insight into what, if anything, has changed in terms of voter allegiance, and on that front, the DA has taken a battering.

Funny, it’s almost like a large majority of voters have reacted badly to the recent Steenhuisen / Zille domination at the DA’s elective congress, just as many analysts predicted.

Again, votes are still being tallied, and it may be too early to draw sweeping conclusions, but the DA won’t be happy with what we know thus far.

EWN says preliminary vote counting shows the DA as the biggest loser:

While results are still being tallied, with the final outcome expected to be announced at midday, the DA appears to have lost at least eight seats in Gauteng, the North West, Northern Cape and the Western Cape…

You can find a more in-depth breakdown of wards by province here, but let’s look closer at the numbers in some of those wards.

Self-professed “election nerd” Dawie Scholtz has done just that, calling the results a “total DA disaster”:

1/ Yesterday was total DA disaster:

Western Cape DA % by ward

Cape Town 14: 73% (-7)
Cape Town 88: 22% (+3)
Saldanha 13: 47% (-28)
Paarl 3: 68% (-16)
George 8: 36% (-19)
George 14: 33% (-20)
George 17: 38% (-25)
George 27: 38% (-18)
Knysna 9: 76% (-17)
Knysna 10: 68% (-19)

— Dawie Scholtz (@DawieScholtz) November 12, 2020

That tweet is part of a thread that’s worth reading in full, but we’ll screenshot more of that below:

I believe it was Zapiro who called the DA ‘the great white party’, and there appears to be a serious disconnect with non-white voters.

More from Dawie’s thread:

There are “some bright spots”, according to Dawie, with the DA holding numbers “in predominantly white, English-speaking suburbs in KZN and the Eastern Cape. And also flipped one seat in rural Eastern Cape.”

However, he ends that thread saying “All-in-all a big trouncing for the DA across all demographic groups outside of white, English-speaking suburbia.”

In conclusion:

If you want a party that can challenge the ANC to actually fix SA, the current iteration of the DA isn’t going to get you there.

— Dawie Scholtz (@DawieScholtz) November 12, 2020

His words, not mine.

If you want to see Dawie’s breakdown of how the ANC performed, here’s that thread.

Again, these numbers are preliminary, and the official results are expected at some time around midday today.

But you’d need your head to be buried in the sand to miss the fact that the DA is struggling to hold onto votes from people of colour, let alone gain ground on that front.

[source:ewn]