I know, I know, the headline is a little bit clickbaity. But you know that we have the good stuff on this blog. Here are two maps which will give you the solid background you need to speak intelligibly and intelligently about the upcoming municipal elections. Continue reading
The Municipal Demarcation Board released the new boundary demarcations (district municipalities, local municipalities and municipal wards). These boundaries are available as shape files, so we can now map the old boundaries onto the new. Specifically, we can see how the changes in ward boundaries might affect 2016 seats won by the various parties. Continue reading
Here’s a timeline of events for Tlokwe. I made it using this awesome tool developed by the Knight Lab, and taught to me at the Data Journalism Academy run by Code4SA.
Let me know what you think.
A few months ago I beat my breast and went on about how I couldn’t vote for the DA in the upcoming municipal elections because the party didn’t respect the rights of the rural poor. Last week a car sped through a broken traffic light outside my flat, smashing into another car and a group of pedestrians.
This week I am ready to toss aside any notion of principles when I cast my vote in a few months, at the school up the road that deputises as a voting station, the school that is now undergoing trauma counselling for the death of one of its pupils and the maiming of several others.
The last round of by-elections for the year was held on Wednesday. Only three wards were contested, two ANC wards and a DA ward. Continue reading
Come for the musical puns and stay for the political analysis, that’s always been the motto and tagline of this blog. But I digress. Thlokwe and the IEC are in a mess. Continue reading
So, about the DA winning Johannesburg and Tshwane. You know, it might just happen. I don’t think it will, but it could. Vague predictions aside, the DA’s future in the big cities is an important part of the story of municipal government – but it’s not the whole story. In fact, statistically speaking, it’s not even most of the story.
I want to crunch the by-election numbers to look at the DA’s successes and failures over the last four years. Like the ANC, it is more likely to publicise the former and downplay the latter. Continue reading
The fun in by-election analysis – and it’s not a rich seam of fun – does not come from the Excel sheets and the tables and the maps. The fun comes from people’s reactions to the results.
South Africans went to the polls in eight wards in Wednesday’s by-elections (there were another two ANC wards which were uncontested). Five wards were won by the DA in the 2011 municipal elections and three were won by the ANC. Continue reading
I have been promiscuous with my vote in the past (see this Daily Maverick article for some whimsy and wankery on the subject) and I am loyal to political parties the way that Elizabeth Taylor was good at staying married to one person. But I don’t feel that I can vote for the DA next year under any circumstances. I will tell you why. (Spoiler alert: it’s because of the party’s handling of Dalindyebo, the Mad King.)