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The leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), John Steenhuisen. Image: Ziyaad Douglas / Gallo Images
- The district attorney emerged as the biggest loser in Wednesday’s national by-elections.
- Across the country, he lost his pupils to the ANC, the Patriotic Alliance, Al Jama-ah and the Good Party.
- DA federal council chair Helen Zille has said the “right-wing” Freedom Front Plus continues to grow.
The district attorney was beaten in Wednesday’s national by-elections, suffering brutal losses to small parties and losing a district in the Western Cape that was considered the party’s “safe haven”.
The first results showed that the ANC took one room from the DA in the local municipality of Emfuleni, while Al Jama-ah, the Patriotic Alliance and the ANC took three seats from the DA in the city of Johannesburg.
The Freedom Front Plus, considered a home for disgruntled Afrikaans DA members, took a DA seat in JB Marks township in the northwest.
READ | Losses in DA By-Election: Election Analyst Dawie Scholtz Answers 5 Questions
Also in the northwest, the ANC seized a room previously held by the district attorney in Madibeng municipality.
In the Northern Cape, the ANC took two DA seats. The district attorney lost both wards in the troubled local Phokwane municipality and the local Renosterberg municipality.
1 / Yesterday was a total DA disaster:
Western Cape DA% by neighborhood
Cape Town 14: 73% (-7)
Cape Town 88: 22% (+3)
Saldanha 13: 47% (-28)
Pair 3: 68% (-16)
Jorge 8: 36% (-19)
Jorge 14: 33% (-20)
Jorge 17: 38% (-25)
Jorge 27: 38% (-18)
Knysna 9: 76% (-17)
Knysna 10: 68% (-19)– Dawie Scholtz (@DawieScholtz) November 12, 2020
In greatest surprise, the Good party took a DA seat at George in the Western Cape.
Good, led by former Cape Town Mayor and Western Cape DA leader Patricia de Lille, won District 27, considered a DA stronghold.
In the city of Cape Town, the DA retained all its districts, albeit with fewer votes.
READ | The by-elections, a litmus test for the 2021 local elections – Ralph Mathekga
DA federal council chair Helen Zille took to Facebook “analyzing” the results.
“The split of the ‘moderate non-racial center’ continues, with the growth of small ethnic parties. Often times, these small parties cannot win districts, but divide the opposition vote enough to allow the ANC to win. Candidates from small ethnic parties win, sometimes maintaining the “balance of power” in municipalities, which makes coalitions very unstable as they switch allegiance between the main parties. This is the lesson we learned in Nelson Mandela Bay and Johannesburg, “he said.
Zille said the “right-wing” Freedom Front Plus continues to grow, particularly in the Northwest, “where the long shadow of the Schweizer-Reneke debacle continues to hang over the DA.”
“Building public trust takes decades. It can decompose in a few years. Those were the tough lessons yesterday, “he said.
READ ALSO | ANC Lite: DA is already making similar mistakes
But Zille said progress was never linear in politics, stating that “the tide rises and falls.”
“There are times of growth and times of consolidation. The DA is in a period of consolidation. Our internal systems and processes, so vital to renewed growth, have stabilized. We have moved them to digital platforms and the internal coherence of the organization is being restored, “he said.
Zille also attacked the media.
“We have to face the fact that we have an extremely hostile media environment, where the district attorney is judged by a totally different set of standards than elsewhere. This is life. We take care of that, “he said.
The official results will be announced on Thursday.
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