DA wins first ever KwaZulu-Natal municipality, after being voted in Umngeni

• The DA has won its first municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, the Umngeni Local Municipality.
• Provincial DA leader Francois Rogers said residents were tired of corruption and poor service delivery.
• The ANC in the province said their loss was to be expected.

The DA in KwaZulu-Natal has announced that it has won the Umngeni Local Municipality, the first municipality the party has ever won in the province. 

"We have been saying for some time during this campaign that we are confident that we will take the Umngeni municipality away from the ANC, and clearly, the people of Umgeni have now spoken. They are tired of corruption and poor service delivery. They are tired of a failed ANC," said DA provincial leader Francois Rogers.

News24 elections forecaster | Real-time projections as the votes continue to be counted

Following the party's announcement at the KwaZulu-Natal IEC's results operation centre, ANC KZN spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said that the ANC's loss of the municipality was to be expected.

"We had expected [this]. If you remember, issues of Umngeni have been there for the last two years. There have been strikes and instability, and infighting within that municipality. We even had to change the leadership to try and bring stability. Part of the challenge is that there were other efforts that the province tried to do to try and turn the situation around [and it] did not yield positive results," Ntombela said. 

Ntombela said that infighting and protests organised by ANC members against the municipality played a part in their downfall. 

"Part of the problem was the infighting between the comrades, which ended up collapsing the municipality," he said. 

READ | Umngeni 'on financial brink'

Rogers said that DA mayor-elect Chris Pappas was ready to take over the municipality and run it the DA way. 

"We look forward to turning the municipality around into an effective municipality that focuses its attention on service delivery and ensuring that people can live in an environment where potholes are repaired, and street lights are repaired," Rogers said.