The ancestors have given the Ubuntu Local Municipality to the ANC, according to the ruling party’s Northern Cape branch.

This after the ANC won the Northern Cape municipality this afternoon via a coin toss after the DA-Cope coalition and the ANC received an equal number of seats.

Each had four seats, and a council meeting held to resolve the impasse last Thursday bore no fruit. The Victoria West-based municipality was the only council in the country where the DA-Cope coalition and the ANC won the same number of votes.

Northern Cape ANC secretary Zamani Saul attributed the victory not to luck but to the work of “ancestral spirits”.

He said: “We are very much excited because ancestors are always with us when we are confronted by such challenges.”

The DA and the ANC had the option of either running the municipality in turns until their term was over, or to cast lots to determine the winner. They agreed to toss the coin, a duty that fell on municipal manager Martin Fillis.

Fillis said the DA opted for tails while the ANC chose heads, and the casting of the lots was in line with schedule 3, subsection 4 of the Municipal Structures Act.

DA provincial leader Andrew Louw said his party accepted its loss.