DA draws ire with SMS campaign against smaller parties
The DA’s campaign against its fellow opposition parties angered the parties, who called it 'deception' that 'exposed the DA’s arrogance'.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, on the campaign trail, April 2019. Picture: EFE-EPA / Kim Ludbrook
The Democratic Alliance could have shot itself in the foot when it called for voters not to waste their votes by voting for the smaller parties – something observers said could weaken the opposition against the ruling ANC.
The DA started an SMS campaign in which it despised the smaller fellow opposition parties, which have reacted with anger, calling the DA statement a deception show and arrogance.
The DA campaign was initiated despite the fact the party had standing agreements with the smaller parties to establish coalition partnerships, which had helped the DA to gain control of Tshwane, Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay metros before.
Nelson Mandela metro had been run by a coalition of the DA, UDM, Cope, ACDP, Freedom Front Plus and the Patriotic Alliance.
Now the smaller parties accused the DA of going against the spirit of a coalition agreement it had entered into with them in 2016. The agreement was an extension of the co-operation among small parties in the national campaign to get then president Jacob Zuma to step down.
The DA’s SMS campaign against its fellow opposition parties received no favour from the parties, who called it “deception” that “exposed the DA’s arrogance”.
The African Democratic Party’s (ACDP’s) Gauteng’s provincial chairperson, Lesiba Molokomme, called for voters to punish the DA at the ballot box for misleading voters.
“Clearly, with this type of behaviour no one should trust them,” Molokomme said.
The DA’s Western Cape campaign spokesperson, Daylin Mitchell, said voting for the smaller parties would reduce the DA’s thin margin in the Western Cape.
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