Voting for smaller opposition parties, apart from those represented in the multiparty charter (MPC), will guarantee a win for the ANC, EFF and uMkhonto WeSizwe (MK) parties, DA leader John Steenhuisen says.
On the campaign trail in Tshwane on Wednesday, Steenhuisen told party supporters that smaller parties, particularly the Patriotic Alliance (PA), whose president is Gayton McKenzie, were “mercenaries” for the ANC.
“They will take your vote and give it to the ANC, EFF and doomsday [ANC, EFF, MK] coalition,” he said.
The DA is facing renewed pressure from the PA and there are also new parties targeting the Western Cape such as ActionSA and Rise Mzansi, who all appeal to the DA’s traditional liberal voter base.
The DA is also facing pressure from other parties such as the GOOD party led by minister of tourism and former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille. De Lille and McKenzie are their respective parties’ premier candidates in the Western Cape.
The possibility of the DA losing its outright majority in the Western Cape is not implausible as its share of the electoral vote has declined since its peak of 59% in 2014. In the 2019 national elections, the DA received 55.45% of the vote in that province, and dropped to 54.26% by the 2021 local government elections.
Steenhuisen said the smaller opposition parties knew that they were unlikely to garner sufficient votes to form a national government so they “play the two sides off against each other”.
“They exploit the binary situation so that they can try to get the best deal by pitting the MPC against the doomsday coalition and what they know is that when you split the opposition vote, it gives them more bargaining power with the doomsday people and the MPC,” Steenhuisen said.
In response, GOOD’s secretary-general, Brett Herron, said: “Rather than beat the old ‘swart gevaar’ drum, Steenhuisen should ask himself how the DA’s claim to be running the Western Cape exceptionally well squares with the fact that his party is about to lose its majority in the province. If the DA had used the opportunity it has had in government to materially improve people’s lives, Steenhuisen would have nothing to worry about from any other party.”
Political analyst TK Pooe said Steenhuisen was elected as the party’s leader when the DA required a steady pair of hands after former DA head Mmusi Maimane resigned.
“However, this approach and Mr Steenhuisen were never suited to growing the party in the imagination of voters, and this is the problem with his and those supporting his approach. He is a solid but not spectacular caretaker administrator for the party apparat. But it would seem more imaginative figures such as Geordin Hill-Lewis, Siviwe Gwarube, Solly Malatsi, Andrew Whitfield and Tertius Simmers are seen as not quite ready for higher honours within the DA,” he said.
“In short, he is a solid, non-imaginative political figure, without the necessary political leadership stardust qualities to propel the DA beyond its current quagmire of being a declining and possibly a regional party.”
Political analyst Heather Thuynsma said the rise in smaller opposition parties was because of widespread dissatisfaction with the current political system, which voters perceived to be crumbling, and that the DA was aware of this risk.
“But the recent municipal coalitions seem to illustrate how fickle coalition partners can be. The breakdown of coalitions in the Western Cape, Plettenberg Bay Municipality [now Bitou Municipality] as an example, is also an indication of how powerful these smaller parties can be once they are in government, because they are now able to exercise their ‘king-making’ power and disrupt political dynamics and directly challenge, in this case, the DA’s narrative of good governance and its goals of improved service delivery,” she said.
“To try to arrest the growth, the DA needs to figure out how to work better with their coalition partners. But in the short term, and on the campaign trail, they need to adopt a more personal (human) approach to politics, especially ahead of the May poll.”
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