Boardroom Talk: Big Day for Young Democracy on Wednesday with Ditsobotla council re-run vote

South Africa's young democracy has a big moment on Wednesday when 45 Local Government by-elections will be held. The bulk of them (39) are because of the fraud-related dissolution of the Ditsobotla local municipality's council – the area around Lichtenburg in the NW province – where just under 31 000 people voted in November last year.

Ditsobotla will be a huge test for the ANC, which scraped home with 52% of the votes a year ago. The EFF and DA came in at around 15% each, Independents got 9% and the FF+ 4%. The trend in by-elections, and circumstances around the council dissolution suggests the ANC will fall well below 50%.  

So it's no surprise to see opposition parties throwing their big guns into the contest with both DA leader John Steenhuisen and Federal Chair Helen Zille on the ground supporting a catchy campaign poster (above) promoting the party's prospectus.

Zille tweeted about her experiences during three days of campaigning starting off by emphasizing "how lucky we are to have lived under a DA government for so long in the Western Cape." Reactions to the Zille tweet thread are instructive.

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