The DA’s two electoral nemeses are the PA and ActionSA

The DA has two direct electoral enemies: one that threatens its existence and other that gives it sleepless nights at every election – ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance (PA).

Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA is a soft and quiet foe, while Gayton McKenzie’s PA is a radical and vocal adversary and strongly dares the DA in its long-monopolised coloured constituency in the Western Cape and elsewhere.

Experts agree the two parties are set to make life difficult for the DA because they are stealing its supposed base – the middle class for ActionSA and coloured voters for the PA.

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Experts note that during the recent election campaign, ActionSA became visible in the white suburbs and black middle-class areas, while the PA centred its campaign in coloured areas.

ActionSA called ‘DA-lite’

Political analyst Prof Ntsikelelo Breakfast said ActionSA was called “DA-lite” for a reason – because, like the DA, it pursued neoliberal and free market policies. The two parties are funded by the same donors.

He said ActionSA appealed to the middle class but it was not rooted in the rank-and-file members of the population. ActionSA also believes in a direct, constituency-based electoral system, social justice, ethical leadership and rule of law, among others.

Breakfast said the black population, especially in Gauteng, liked ActionSA because of Mashaba’s strong stance against illegal foreigners and his commendable service delivery performance when he was mayor of Joburg.

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Indeed, during its election campaign, the party placed most of its posters at strategic spots in the cities and suburbs, where the DA also fished for its traditional white voters and, in particular, areas such as Soweto, the Tshwane townships and Nelson Mandela Bay.

Action SA surprised many as it contested the national polls for the first time, receiving six seats in the National Assembly and five seats in the provincial legislatures in the May elections.

ActionSA outperformed longstanding parliamentary parties such as the Pan Africanist Congress, United Democratic Movement, African Christian Democratic Party, African Independent Congress, Al Jama-ah and the African Transformation Movement.

PA aims at coloured vote

The PA, led by McKenzie, a businessman and former convict, was open about competing against the DA for the coloured vote.

PA secretary-general Chinelle Stevens said the fight with the DA was due to the PA daring to enter the DA’s stronghold of Western Cape.

“The real issue here is that the DA, by its leader’s own admission, sees the Western Cape as its entitlement, its homeland and that no other party should dare go there to campaign – lest they upset John Steenhuisen,” she said.

“The PA not only dared but we have enjoyed great political success in the Western Cape. The DA’s obsession with keeping us out of its provincial fortress has now sadly spilled over to the [government of national unity].”

Stevens said the DA’s federal council chair, Helen Zille, wanted to be obeyed without question and “power has turned her into the very thing she once fought against – deranged demagogy”.

Zille wanted the ANC to do her bidding, said Stevens.

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“We call on the ANC to dismiss Zille’s sour grapes and petty provincial conceits and do the right thing for South Africa,” Stevens said.

Independent political analyst Goodenough Mashego said Zille was concerned about the PA “because, for the longest time, the DA enjoyed a monopoly over the coloured vote because the coloured voters had long left the ANC”.

He added: “McKenzie is on a collision with Zille because he is fishing in the same pond she has been fishing in to maintain the grip on the Western Cape. She is not happy to see the PA performing best in the Western Cape and other coloured areas and being put in the GNU.”