As DA turns eyes elsewhere, small parties tread on its toes

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen is seemingly more afraid of small parties than the ANC.

He is aware there are areas where the ANC is dominant, which the DA and other small parties cannot penetrate, says political analyst Levy Ndou.

“Rise Mzansi and the Patriotic Alliance [PA] cannot attract voters from areas dominated by the ANC, but they must get support from the DA,” Ndou said.

Complacency biggest enemy of DA progress in WC – Steenhuisen

Rise Mzansi, ActionSA, the PA and Bosa [Build One South Africa] were spinoffs of the DA, and were campaigning in areas which challenged the DA’s dominance.

Steenhuisen addressed the party’s Western Cape election manifesto launch in Paarl on Saturday. He urged supporters to turn out in large numbers to vote for the party in the 29 May elections.

Steenhuisen said the biggest enemy of progress in the Western Cape was not a desperate ANC trying to hold on to power, but complacency.

He noted the presence of political opportunists within smaller parties who aimed to capitalise on this complacency.

‘Political mercenaries’

“Instead of fighting to fix the eight ANC provinces that have been smashed to pieces, the political mercenaries in parties like the Patriotic Alliance, Rise Mzansi, GOOD and the National Coloured Congress are obsessed with trying to break the one DA province that works,” he said.

Political analyst André Duvenhage said the ANC and DA had been the dominant forces in the Western Cape for many years, but the DA had become stronger.

The establishment of new parties like the PA and other small parties like the GOOD party and ActionSA were working as the support base for the DA.

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Knysna example of alliance ousting DA

He said the DA had lost when an alliance of the PA, the ANC, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) took over with devastating service delivery results for the people of Knysna.

Steenhuisen pointed to Knysna as an example of a town which had been governed by the DA but due to its supporters not turning out to vote, the party had lost its power.

“Like all governments with outright DA majorities, Knysna was once a showpiece for stability and good governance, but things changed dramatically after the 2021 local government elections, when complacency caused DA voters there to stay at home instead of turning out to vote,” he said.

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Smaller parties ‘significant’

Duvenhage said Steenhuisen was not underestimating the ANC.

He referenced the numbers at the last national and provincial elections, saying the ANC was losing support and “in this election, it also seems as if the ANC is not gaining a lot of momentum”.

“These small parties are significant in this region in the sense that they can ensure the DA is not achieving an absolute majority.

“The support base for these groups is coming from specifically the coloured communities and the bushing-oriented communities who are dissatisfied with the DA’s approach to the Gaza conflict,” he said.

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Personality more important than the party?

The University of SA’s Dirk Kotzé said most parties were led by people whose personalities were more important than the party and who didn’t want to cooperate with each other which made it a challenge for them to serve well.

“There’s a large number of remote parties and each one wants to speak on their own, therefore they cannot really stand together,” Kotzé said.

“If there is a big takeaway, some of the support has to be there, but it’s not an alternative.”

Steenhuisen questions why smaller parties are trying to break ‘DA province’

Steenhuisen said they had to ask themselves why were these parties not campaigning in ANC provinces?

“Why are they running around trying to break the one DA province that, over the past five years, has created four out of every five net new jobs in the whole of South Africa?”

He said it was because the province was the last one with anything left to loot.

Ndou said: “While the DA is concentrating on other areas, their own areas are being infiltrated by small parties, and that’s a threat.”

IN PICTURES: Democratic Alliance election manifesto launch