It's a historic victory and a new dawn.
John Steenhuisen, leader of the DA on Tuesday afternoon claimed victory for the party at Umngeni municipality at Howick. He said the results were confirmed and audited.
Steenhuisen said the DA governs Umngeni with its own majority. He said DA mayoral candidate Chris Pappas had led a very spirited campaign there.
He said this was "a beachhead in KZN to start making inroads into other municipalities".
He said it was personally a very big milestone because he’s from KwaZulu-Natal where it had always been "a fight between two parties".
Witness politics editor Clive Ndou reporting from the Electoral Commission (IEC) results centre in Durban said the DA had received the highest votes at the uMngeni Municipality previously controlled by the ANC.
According to the latest IEC figures, the DA got 47.41% of the vote to the ANC's 39.17%.
Chris Pappas posted that the DA has won the uMngeni Municipality with 13 seats allocated to it, the ANC with 10 seats and the EFF with two seats.
He thanked voters who braved the cold and the heat to cast their ballots. "Your vote brought change. Thank you to all those people who have decided to give the DA a chance for the first time. Our team is ready to get things done!"
This article has been amended.
