Democratic Alliance stands firm in Cape Town.

The African National Congress (ANC) has backed down on its bid to change the system of government in Cape Town in a move that would have given the national ruling party more representation in the only major city in South Africa where it does not currently hold power. Following an agreement with mayor Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the leading party in a seven-party ruling coalition, Western Cape local government minister Richard Dyantyi said he had decided not to proceed at this point with proposals to replace the mayor with an executive committee system. In exchange, DA has agreed to the creation of two new sub-councils in ANC strongholds in the city, taking the number of sub-councils controlled by the ANC from five to seven. The compromise ends weeks of political wrangling between local and provincial government over what Zille described as a power grab and the greatest test of democracy in the country since the end of apartheid in 1994.