JUNE BY-ELECTIONS: Patriotic Alliance notches easy win to retain key Malmesbury ward, worries mount for DA

The Patriotic Alliance strengthened its grip on a key Swartland ward in Malmesbury in the Western Cape with an increased majority over the DA in the final Western Cape by-election before the local government elections in November. The PA has further established itself in a municipality which was once the safest DA municipality in the country.

Ward 11 (Malmesbury Wesbank) Swartland, West Coast: PA 53% (40%) DA 42% (39%) ANC 4% (5%) TRUTH <1%

The setting: Wesbank is west of the town centre of Malmesbury. It sits below the R315 road which links Malmesbury with Darling. Swartland also includes Moorreesburg and Riebeek-Kasteel. The area is known for its wheat farming and wine farms.

The 2024 by-election: The PA shocked the DA here to win its first seat on the Swartland council. It edged the DA by 28 votes. The party achieved this remarkable win by winning the most-populous voting district by 116 votes. Its vote share at the Indoor Sports Centre voting district catapulted from 3% to 43%, while the DA dropped from 45% to 35%. The ANC fell from 22% to 5% here. The turnout was higher at the Indoor Sports Centre compared with the smaller Wesbank Community Hall district.

The DA beat the PA by 88 votes at the Wesbank Community Hall, making small gains to move from 46% to 49%. The big gains were made by the PA, from 2% to 33%, and largely off the FF+, which was not on the ballot, the ANC and Good. Good was not on the ballot either. The ANC fell from second to fourth place in the ward.

The PA overturned a 715-vote deficit in 2021 to upend the DA by 28 votes. The party made a significant West Coast breach in this by-election.

The council composition after the by-election was DA (13) 14 ANC 5 FF+ 2 PA 1 (0) Good 1 EFF 1. Total: 23.

The 2024 provincial election: The DA beat the PA by 229 votes in a closely fought election to finish with 49% of the vote. The PA obtained 40%, in line with what it received in the by-election a few months before. The ANC was a distant third with 6%, slightly higher than its 2024 by-election return.

The DA’s 49% suggests that the bulk of independent candidate Moos Jaanse’s supporters voted for the DA on the provincial ballot.

The turnout was marginally higher at the Indoor Sports Centre than at the West Bank Community Hall.

The 2026 by-election: The ward councillor resigned. Perennial independent candidate Jaanse ran under the DA banner. The PA retained the seat comfortably by 283 votes as it won more than half of the vote in the ward in a relatively high-turnout by-election. The party received 520 more votes than it did in the 2024