South Africa: DA Canters to Victory in Two Saldanha Bay Wards, Ff+ Puts in Spirited Langebaan Showing

23 April 2026
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Wayne Sussman

The DA easily retained two seats in the Saldanha Bay municipality in the West Coast district of the Western Cape in the first round of by-elections since the election of Geordin Hill-Lewis as party leader. The Freedom Front Plus showed encouraging growth to obtain a quarter of the vote in the Langebaan ward.

Saldanha Bay, West Coast

The setting: Saldanha Bay is the second-most-populous municipality in the West Coast after Swartland (Malmesbury). Key towns in the Saldanha Bay municipality are Saldanha Bay, Vredenburg, Langebaan and Hopefield. The town of Saldanha Bay is known for its harbour and iron ore exports. It also has a naval academy and was historically a centre of steel processing.

Ward 5 (Town and Jacobsbaai) Saldanha Bay, West Coast: DA 88% (77%) PA 8% (2%) Ind-Vorster 4% TRUTH <1%

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The setting: Ward 5 includes the town centre of Saldanha Bay and the small seaside community of Jacobsbaai. Most of the voters in Ward 5 are in Saldanha Bay, with just under six out of every seven casting their ballots in the town voting district.

The 2021 local government election: The DA won Ward 5 easily, followed by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) with 9% support.

The 2024 provincial election: The DA came first with 82% of the vote. The Patriotic Alliance (PA) made good inroads to finish second with 6%. In 2021, the PA finished sixth in the ward. The FF+ only obtained 3% on the provincial ballot.

The by-election: The DA ward councillor and deputy mayor, Charmaine Laubscher,...

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