The Eastern Cape town of Louterwater is home to about 5,000 people, most of whom are farmworkers or former farmworkers. Residents complain of potholed roads, uncollected waste and an unreliable water supply. Archive photo: Marecia Damons
- Residents of Kou-Kamma Municipality complain about potholes, uncollected rubbish and sewage spills.
- In the November 2026 election, the ANC won five of Kou-Kamma’s 12 seats, two short of a majority. The PA won four and the DA three.
- Since 2021, the council has been governed by various alliances, with the mayorship changing twice in June 2026.
Clive Abrahams has lived in Louterwater in the Kou-Kamma Municipality in the Eastern Cape for 30 years.
“Our town has turned into a rubbish town. It’s terrible,” said Abrahams.
He is one of several residents who complained about deteriorating infrastructure, poor service delivery and an unreliable water supply.
Now, after last week’s elections, the municipality is heading for a hung council again, and Abrahams is not optimistic that services will improve.
Abrahams uses his car to transport farmworkers to and from their jobs, supplementing his disability grant. But the potholes in the area are so bad, they have repeatedly damaged the shocks and ball joints on his car.
While driving towards Joubertina on the R62 on Wednesday, he saw rubbish bags falling off a collection vehicle. The workers continued driving, leaving rubbish scattered along the road, he said.
Abrahams wants the new council to fix the roads, sort out the sewage running in the streets, and create jobs for young people. He believes a lack of work is contributing to vandalism and the theft of water pumps and building materials.
“We all voted for the ANC during those first elections. But in these 30 years they have let us down,” he said.
Many residents had decided to give other parties “a chance to see if they can improve things”, he said. But he was disappointed that many people had once again voted for the ANC.
“Many of our people’s eyes are still closed,” he said.
The ANC remains the biggest party in Kou-Kamma, but it has lost a seat. It won five of the 12 council seats. The Patriotic Alliance (PA) came second with four seats, and the DA third with three. The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and an independent, who each held a seat after 2021, lost their seats.
No party has the seven seats needed for a majority, so the ANC, PA and DA will have to negotiate.
Kou-Kamma’s council has changed considerably since 2011, when seats were shared between just two parties. The 2011 election was split between the ANC and DA. The ANC won six of the council’s 11 seats, giving it a majority. The DA took the remaining five seats. The results were similar in 2016.
But the picture changed in 2021, when the council grew to 12 seats. The ANC held onto six seats but no longer had a majority. This forced the ANC into a coalition with an independent councillor. The opposition benches consisted of the DA, with three seats, and the PA and FF+, with one seat each.
After the PA won ward 2 in a by-election in November 2025, it joined the DA and FF+ to vote out the speaker, independent councillor Dudley Maasdorp, an ANC ally, after a video allegedly showed him pointing a firearm at a resident.
The mayorship changed hands twice in June 2026: the PA’s Brendon Tirone Jantjies was elected on 2 June, and the ANC’s Samuel Vuso became mayor on 30 June.
Last week in ward 1, covering Misgund and Krakeelrivier, the ANC’s Heinrich Manci won with 41%. The PA’s Betram Korkee, who had won the ward in a September 2025 by-election, finished third with 26%.
In ward 2, covering Louterwater and Joubertina, the ANC’s Stanley Plaatjies won with 40% of the votes, beating the PA’s Michael Hartz, who received 37%. Hartz had won the ward from the ANC in a November 2025 by-election, after the previous councillor defected to the PA.
The ANC held wards 5 and 6 and won ward 3 from the independent, but lost ward 4 to the DA.
For Abrahams, what matters is whether the councillors are prepared to serve residents.
“If there is good service delivery, we don’t have a problem with whoever is in charge,” he said.
But he is not optimistic that things will improve.
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