Chris Pappas tightens DA grip on uMngeni with election landslide - IOL

The DA has swept the board in uMngeni, claiming victory with more than 60% of the vote and leaving the MK Party and the ANC trailing far behind.

With 82% of votes counted by 1.42pm on Thursday, the DA had 62.66%, against 18.04% for the MK Party and 15.03% for the ANC.

The result would see the DA tighten its grip on a council it won with 48% of the vote and a single-seat majority in 2021.

Mayor Chris Pappas is set for a second term at the helm of the municipality.

The party said it had swept all four of the municipality’s township wards, which it described as 100% black wards, with commanding majorities.

“This means that the DA can confidently proclaim today that we will retain the municipality of uMngeni with a majority of more than 60% from 48% five years ago,” DA provincial chair Dean Macpherson said at a media briefing on Thursday.

The DA had won six seats so far, with the MK Party and the ANC on one each.

The win is a sharp reversal from the 2024 elections, when the MK Party beat the DA in uMngeni in the provincial vote.

“If it had been a local government election, MK would have been the largest party,” he said.

“However, the DA was not prepared to accept defeat.

“We set to work and continued on our mission to ensure that we connect with every single voter in this municipality. That has now paid off.”

The DA said it had spent the past five years pulling uMngeni back from “bankruptcy, corruption and indifferent delivery”, often in the face of a hostile provincial government.

Pappas thanked the more than 600 DA volunteers who worked in uMngeni on election day.

“Indeed, over the last five years we have become what we like to call a beacon of hope for the rest of South Africa and of course our province as well,” Pappas said.

He also thanked the media for holding the municipality to account, “even with some of your dodgy news headlines sometimes”.

The IEC has seven days to declare the final results.