This article is quite blunt and transparent about who it addresses. I write this for the South African who follows politics relatively closely, believes in free markets, property rights, decentralisation, accountable government and strong institutions but who nevertheless remains sceptical of the Democratic Alliance.
That scepticism does not offend me. Political parties should earn trust rather than demand it.
So I am not asking anyone to suspend their judgement. But I am asking that the DA be judged by the two tests that matter most in politics in any country. Judge the DA by what we actually do where we govern, and what we explicitly promise to do where we do not.
So let us start with our record.
At the risk of stating the obvious, South African local government is in deep trouble. Of the over 500 registered political parties in South Africa, only one – the DA – can make a credible claim to the mantle of good governance. On the whole, DA-governed towns and cities are functional, successful and forward looking. They represent the only places in the country where there is integrity in public finances, working basic services, higher investment and jobs growth.
Whether it be the Auditor-General’s findings or independent research like Ratings Afrika’s latest Municipal Financial Sustainability Index, all show that DA-run governments stand out as notable exceptions to the severe financial and administrative collapse prevailing across local government.
Now that does not mean every DA government is perfect. But it does mean there is enough evidence to test what we say against actual outcomes. There is enough evidence that a resident living in a DA town has more opportunity to live a meaningful life.
Secondly, let’s look at the DA’s manifesto.
Careful reading
For those who worry that the DA has somehow abandoned pro-market reform, I would urge a careful reading rather than relying on social-media summaries.
Our national manifesto supports a balanced approach to privatisation of state-owned enterprises, public-private partnerships for infrastructure, private investment in electricity generation, devolution of policing powers, cutting red tape, and an industrial policy that does not pick winners and losers.
Our 2026 local government manifesto applies the same philosophy at a local level. It supports private investment and technical expertise in water infrastructure where this improves delivery, we advocate for municipalities to buy and sell power, and we undertake to cooperate with neighbourhood watches, community safety initiatives and private security to turn the tide against the gangster state in South Africa. We will partner with communities and private organisations to maintain public spaces, we will cut red tape and we will release to the private sector well-located government-owned land and deliver and protect title deeds.
And importantly for local governments, where a private provider can deliver a municipal service more efficiently or cheaply, DA governments will use them. At the end of the day the discussion is not between private and public but between working and broken.
The DA does not support an “everything state”. We work for a capable state that knows its limits, works with citizens and free markets, and measures itself by results.
The same philosophy increasingly informs the way the DA approaches the Government of National Unity.
When I became Federal Leader, I said that the DA would no longer remain silent when the ANC refuses to consult or compromise. The 2024 election did not give the ANC another mandate to govern exactly as it had before. It forced negotiation and power-sharing.
DA’s opposition
On issues such as business licensing, industrial strategy and the review of BEE, I have stated publicly the DA’s opposition. We no longer allow the fiction of unanimous GNU policy to take hold.
The DA will not defend everything that emerges from the GNU. Coalition government does not require surrendering our principles and the mandate our more than 3.5 million voters gave us.
That is why the DA opposed the proposed VAT increase, rejected the fiscal framework containing it and took the dispute to court. Ultimately the VAT increase was suspended and the fiscal-framework resolutions set aside, allowing the Budget to be tabled afresh – thanks to the DA’s principled opposition within the GNU.
Other GNU parties made different choices. The IFP and ActionSA supported the fiscal framework and the PA had also been won over before the Budget was presented.
The DA will obviously not always get its way in national government. But under my leadership the DA will not hesitate to call out the failings of the GNU and we will make our disagreement public. And where necessary, such as with the Expropriation Act, VAT, the NHI and so on, the DA will fight bad legislation or ideas coming from the GNU in court.
There are less headline-grabbing examples of this new approach too.
At the Public Investment Corporation, the DA has introduced a Pension Protection Bill that would prohibit serving politicians from sitting on its board, end the convention of a Deputy Finance Minister chairing it, and create a more independent appointment process.
Ill-informed
We opposed the ill-informed industrial review policy and the business licensing bill.
None of this means the GNU is functioning as it should. Plainly, it is not. Nor has the DA secured anywhere near every reform it wants.
But the DA is the only party in the GNU publicly opposing bad ideas coming from the GNU. The DA’s ministers are the only ones speaking up in meetings.
Honestly ask yourself whether you’ve heard any opposition from the FF+, the PA or IFP within the GNU. What have they actually spoken out on?
None of them litigated against the Expropriation Act or the Preferential Public Procurement Act, the DA did.
I can see that this firm approach by the DA in the GNU and where it governs is creating hope for ordinary South Africans, South Africans who don’t have the luxury of debating in the comments section below, because they have to focus on daily survival.
In recent weeks I have campaigned in Tshwane, the Garden Route, Durban, Ekurhuleni, Nelson Mandela Bay and Johannesburg. Again and again, people raise the same ordinary concerns. People want safe streets, working water systems, affordable electricity, clean public spaces and the chance to find a job.
And the changing composition of the DA’s own support is revealing.
July polling by the Social Research Foundation (published on The Common Sense) found that black South Africans constituted 36% of the DA’s support base, marginally more than its white share. Black, Coloured and Indian supporters together made up 65%.
I believe this is another reason to retire the lazy racial shorthand through which South African politics is so often interpreted. There is a similarly concrete measure of the DA’s expanding national footprint.
Following publication of the certified candidate lists, the DA says it is the only party fielding a candidate in every ward in the coming local government election, and one of only two contesting every municipality.
Stop coalition chaos
Whatever your present view of the DA, I think South Africa needs a politics that is less interested in labels and more interested in evidence. And more and more South Africans are seeing this. They see that only a strong DA can stop coalition chaos and govern for all South Africans.
Readers of the Daily Friend are right to be sceptical of political parties. Keep that scepticism.
But apply it consistently.
Read our manifesto and look at what our governments actually do. Measure us against our principles, our record and our results. And then ask who else offers the same. Who else can arrest the decline. Who else can lead in taking South Africa forward.
I remain convinced that the evidence gives us good reason to believe in something much bigger than any one political party, namely that decline in South Africa is not inevitable and South Africa can work – for everyone.
[Image: John Endres]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
If you like what you have just read, support the Daily Friend