News24 | DA puts the squeeze on small parties in last election push

• DA Western Cape leader Tertuis Simmers gave party members the line of march at the party’s final rally on Saturday.
• In the last four weeks, the DA has four objectives: retain, regain, grow and breakthrough.
• The party’s big objective is to squeeze small parties out of the race. After the 2021 municipal elections, 16 out of the province’s 30 municipalities were hung.
• For more election news, visit the News24 Elections Hub.

Regain, retain, grow and breakthrough - that’s the line of march for DA members in the Western Cape ahead of the municipal polls on 4 November.

With only 25 days to go before the polls, the DA Western Cape turned the Erica Park Sports Complex in Belhar, Cape Town, into a sea of blue for its final provincial rally.

Speaker after speaker gave similar speeches: the DA’s governance was better than that of other political parties, and thus, voters must be encouraged to vote for the blue machine.

After the 2021 municipal polls, 16 out of 30 municipalities in the Western Cape were hung. The DA is banking on the experience of coalition-related chaos in places such as Knysna to sway voters to the party.

Weeks to go before the polls, DA Western Cape leader Tertuis Simmers told the crowd, the campaign would be “organised around four objectives: retain, regain, grow and breakthrough.

He said:

Four objectives, one campaign, one Western Cape.

The party faces challenges from the Patriotic Alliance, ANC, EFF, GOOD Party, Freedom Front Plus, and ActionSA, who are itching to make a dent in its support base.

Simmers told party supporters: “Where the DA currently governs, our teams are working to retain that support because local government affects people’s everyday lives, basic services, roads, infrastructure and how public money is managed.”

Admitting there was still work to do, Simmers said:

Where people have trusted us with government, we must work every day to earn that trust again.

Simmers said there were also municipalities and wards where the DA is seeking to regain representation in those areas.

When it came to growth, Simmers explained that this meant reaching new communities, which the DA “has not reached before.”

This, he said, included “young people, first-time voters, our working-class communities, our rural communities, it means new activists, new leaders and stronger structures for the future of our party”.

READ | Rivals gun for DA over alleged ‘sextorter’, ‘bogus doctor’ on its candidate lists

Simmers said when it came to the breakthrough, he argued that no voter belonged to an opposition party, and every voter in every community would be listened to and treated with respect, which would cause the breakthrough of increased support, along with the other three campaign pillars.

Simmers then told party loyalists that “yes, there will be headlines, yes, they will try to distract us. Please stay focused, stay organised, stay on the ground, because on the 4th of November, the people of the Western Cape have a very clear choice, a choice between political chaos and stability.”

In an interview afterwards, Simmers made an example of Hessequa municipality, which comprises the towns of Riversdale and Heidelberg.

Regaining meant working in these places, which, after the 2021 polls, the DA held the largest number of voters, but due to poor voter turnout, “we actually lost our majority by either 1 or 2 seats.”

He told News24:

The objective is to regain that because we have now seen the disastrous coalitions that actually do not govern.

But the rally also spoke about other political parties.

DA leader and incumbent mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis told the crowd that there were “people and parties who want to stop the progress we have made. Already in many towns in this province we have seen what chaos comes with coalition governments.”

He said that people paid for coalition-related chaos.

“Our people cannot afford the parties of chaos like the PA, ANC, GOOD and EFF in government,” he said and continued:

So on 4 November, we need every DA voter to vote, and we need you to ensure that your family and friends vote for the DA.

Hill-Lewis, gunning for a second term as mayor of the DA’s municipal crown jewel, told the crowd that “only the DA can continue to progress” and it was the only party that could “defeat the chaos of the PA, ANC, GOOD and EFF.”

READ | ‘Bogus doctor’ to take axing on review after termination of DA membership

While the party’s provincial campaign has been relatively scandal-free, the fallout from Abdulkader “AK” Elyas being placed fourth on the City of Cape Town’s candidate list caused friction internally.

Elyas, who admitted to providing false information around his academic and professional qualifications and who was under a disciplinary process within the party, was placed above established DA leaders and mayoral committee members, Zahid Badroodien (water and sanitation) and Carl Pophaim (human settlements), on the party’s list.

News24 reported that ultimately, the DA terminated his party membership after a disciplinary process and an internal outcry. He plans to go to court over the matter.

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