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On the morning of April 25, 2024, we woke up to a barrage of social media posts by ANC leaders and supporters hailing an excellent showing at the by-elections held around the country the previous day.
It looked like a real emphatic showing by the governing party, with really decent margins, even showing growth in some wards in defiance of expectations from critical commentators and analysts. Only, they did not mention this was a carefully orchestrated PR stunt to project a resilient ANC, pulled off against the constitutional rights of thousands of