Barkly West, Northern Cape — The Dikgatlong Residents Convention (DRC), a civic movement founded less than a year ago in Barkly West, has confirmed it will contest the 2026 local government elections in the Northern Cape — positioning itself as one of the newest entrants on the ballot in a municipality its leaders say has been left behind.
The party, born out of local activism rather than national party structures, was established by residents of the area and is headed by a former regional director of the Independent Electoral Commission. Its provincial chairperson, Kagiso Makoloi, says the movement is prepared for the November poll despite its short history.
“We have witnessed and observed how the current government of the day is isolating our own community here,” said Makoloi, who described himself as a descendant of the Dikgatlong Local Municipality.
A new entrant targeting all three ballot papers
The DRC describes itself as the new kid on the block in the race, and says it is not limiting its ambitions to a single contest: the movement is hoping to secure votes on all three ballot papers in the elections.
According to the party, its membership base already stretches across the municipal jurisdiction, including the settlements of Windsorton and Koopmansfontein — an expansion it frames as evidence that the movement is rooted in the communities it intends to govern rather than imported from outside.
Seven pillars, with service delivery at the centre
The party’s manifesto is built around seven key pillars. Two of the stated priorities are addressing long-standing service delivery challenges and improving the local economy — issues Makoloi said are visible to anyone who travels through the area.
“When you move around here, you will see the high level of unemployment,” he said, pointing also to widespread poverty and what he described as inequality arising from residents not being treated as equals.
The movement says it is not waiting for office to act, and claims it is already working on solutions to some of the problems residents raise on a daily basis.
The complaint about surcharges at local shops
Among the grievances the DRC has put at the front of its campaign is one that residents say hits them at the till: extra charges applied at shops within the municipality, a majority of which, the party says, are foreign-owned.
Makoloi outlined the complaint in concrete terms. A resident who buys R100 worth of electricity, he said, is charged R10 more. A purchase of R20 attracts an additional R2. In effect, he argued, roughly 10% is added on top of whatever a customer buys.
“The community feels that no, this is not right,” Makoloi said. “We need to make sure that we stop that thing.”
The party has framed the surcharge issue as both a consumer-protection matter and an economic one, arguing that money extracted from local households through inflated charges weakens the very economy it says it wants to rebuild.
Confidence ahead of the 4 November polls
With the local government elections set for 4 November, the DRC says it is confident it can take control of the Dikgatlong Local Municipality and hand residents what it describes as accountable, locally led governance.
For a movement less than a year old, the timetable is ambitious. Its leadership, however, argues that its origins — founded by locals, with electoral administration experience at the top — give it an advantage over entrenched political structures in the municipality.
Whether that pitch translates into seats on 4 November will depend on a electorate grappling with the very issues the party has built its campaign around: joblessness, poverty, unequal treatment and the everyday cost of buying electricity or groceries close to home.
