Bitou municipality has a new mayor, but......

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The leader of the Active United Front, Peter Lobese, has been inaugurated as the new Mayor of the Bitou Municipality at Plettenberg Bay. His party received just more than 2 000 of the 35 700 votes in last week's local government elections in the area.

The DA and the ANC were both allocated six seats in the Bitou council with the DA tantalizingly short by just 21 votes of securing a majority.

It was reported earlier that the ANC offered Lobese the mayorship in return for his Active United Front forming a controlling coalition with them.Lobese told AlgoaFM News, however, that it was not his decision to make, but rather that of the community. "The Community decided on their own that we should actually marry the ANC. As leaders, the only thing we do, was to develop an agreement and also to have a road map to develop service delivery. There was no decision from leadership, only from the community" he said.

The DA has enjoyed control of the Bitou council for the past five years, but is now back in the opposition benches.
The DA are disputing the election results. Western Cape leader, Patricia de Lille, says they're not happy with the outcome, and have issues with the election results in one ward in the sea side town. "The way they constituted the Bitou Municipality today is subject to a ruling by the Electoral Court. If the ruling by the Electoral Court rule in favour of the DA, it will then mean that there is no need to form a coalition at all. The Results show that the DA could have had 51% but that is subject to the courts. Our lawyers have now submitted all of the paperwork. It might change or it might stay the same. We don't know" she said.

The Democratic Alliance has officially signed coalition agreements with smaller parties to co-control three Karoo municipalities.

They are: Laingsburg, the previously ANC-run stronghold of Beaufort West, and Prince Albert.

The party is also on its way to governing three other hung municipalities, which are: Witzenberg, Hessaqua and Knysna.

The ANC in the Western Cape is unavailable for comment, and is only expected to make a statement next week.