Geordin Hill-Lewis declares Cape Town victory early, says it looks like 58% for DA - News24
DA leader and Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has declared a landslide victory in the metro, though counting had barely reached the half-way mark.
Hill-Lewis said the DA’s own data showed it cruising towards a 58% win in its main stronghold, meaning it would govern alone for another five years.
“Mense, I have an important announcement to make. Based on all of the data, of all of the voting stations where you all worked late into last night, into this morning, we can now project that our result in the city of Cape Town will be around 58% of the vote.
“Ons het gewen [we won]!” he shouted in drizzling rain outside the IEC’s result centre in Cape Town.
“We are so grateful to every DA supporter who came out yesterday, stood in that heat, stood in long lines, waited until well after 21:00 in the same places last night and cast their vote for the DA. They gave us a resounding, resounding endorsement.”
Hill-Lewis spoke just after noon, when about 47% of votes had been counted. The party was sitting at just over 59% at that point.
He said it seemed clear that Cape Town would be the only metro in the country where a party had secured an outright majority and would not need to govern in a coalition.
“It has been such an honour and a privilege to serve as your mayor in the last five years, and I can’t wait to serve as your mayor again from today.”
Hill-Lewis said the DA had improved its vote share on the Cape Flats, coming within 200 votes of winning Gugulethu for the first time, and added that all indications were that the party had fared exceedingly well across the province.
“Die blou golf is oor die hele Wes-Kaap [the blue wave has washed over all of the Western Cape]. We had a very good night,” he said.
If this was a bit early in the day for a victory speech, it was because Hill-Lewis wanted to head to the IEC centre in Gauteng.
He added in parting: “What we have been in Cape Town these last five years has never been just about Cape Town. It has been about showing our country what is possible in South Africa.”
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