How the DA will use the 2026 Local Government Elections to take the Union Buildings in 2029

The Democratic Alliance is a sly fox. 

While positing itself as a "non-racial party", it seems hell-bent on reminding everyone about how important race is, while preying on the sub-conscious racism every member of our fractured society harbours. 

The apartheid government in those dark years of oppression sowed the fear of the swart-gevaar (the Black danger), and the DA has subtly and subliminally been playing that card for years. 

Why else would it be pushing for the scrapping of B-BBEE, pushing an agenda of meritocracy over existing laws that seek to address the gross imbalance of power, land ownership and wealth?

You see, for many South Africans, white is still right. It may not come out in polite conversations or in public fora, but around the braai, after a few brannes-and-coke, or in the seemingly "private" WhatsApp chats, and certainly all over social media, racism festers and broods like soul-sucking bacteria in a cesspool. What the apartheid government excelled at was getting us to engage in othering. They're not like us. Those people don't work hard. Those people are lazy. Those people are corrupt. Those people do nothing but enrich themselves. Those people have systems of patronage they need to protect. 

The reality is we all do. And we do it to each other. What the apartheid government was also exceedingly successful at was ingraining in us the belief that certain races were "better" than others. 

Under apartheid, black skin and kroes hare were the lowest tier. The bottom caste. Above black people, Coloureds and Indians. At the pinnacle, white people. They succeeded in stripping the blackness from even the non-whites, so even when brown wasn't good enough to sit at the white table, at least we weren't black. How despicable. 

I think the DA knows this, and uses it to their advantage. 

In the Government of National Convenience, the DA very tactically targeted specific ministries for very specific reasons. 

The Department of Home Affairs was, and remains, in shambles; a running gag among South Africans who know they have to get to the offices before dawn's crack if they are to have any hopes of making any further appointments on the day. 

So the DA installs a white man – Leon Schreiber.

The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, long a fertile ground for corruption and dodgy tenders, ripe for the looting for all the government construction contracts it dangles before would-be tenderpreneurs... 

The DA installs a white man – Dean Mcpherson.

The Department of Agriculture, long facing uncertainty, spooked at every turn with talk of expropriation without compensation, images of Zimbabwe-style land-grabs and the chaos and famine that ensued conjured up with the then-opposition DA.

The DA installs a white man – John Steenhuisen.

They've been doing it exceptionally well in the jewels in their crown – The City of Cape Town and Western Cape.

A white man leads the metro – Geordin Hill-Lewis.

A white man leads the province – Alan Winde.

Because white is right. 

At least, that's the troubling notion the DA's governance strategy reflects.

And the DA will take every opportunity to tell you that where it governs, those are the best-run municipalities. 

Helen Zille has embraced this 'white saviour' logic in her bid for the crumbling City of Johannesburg. She will run for mayor next year, after serving as Cape Town's mayor from 2006 to 2009, using her time in the mayoral chains to shore up DA support and unseat the ANC from the premiership of the Western Cape province. 

I really thought the DA would opt for Chris Pappas (another white man) as mayoral candidate for eThekwini, but acutely aware of Durban's Indian population, the party picked Haniff Hoosen instead. 

Non-racial party indeed.

As ANC support dwindles in the major metros, the DA will continue to evangelise its good governance to claim at least five of the country's metros in the 2026 Local Government Elections. 

They'll retain Cape Town, if for no other reason than there aren't enough strong opposition candidates. Capetonians are a conservative bunch, and I don't see the PA's Liam Jacobs, or other former contenders like Fadiel Adams or Brett Herron making a strong enough play for the mayoral chains. 

Nelson Mandela Bay is a municipality marked by political instability. With the metro constantly changing hands between the ANC and the DA, I think the DA will take it. Why? The ANC's own President Cyril Ramaphosa told party councillors the DA was better at running municipalities than they were. Would the voters not take those statements, and the lack of service delivery they're experiencing to heart?

The City of Tshwane and City of Joburg are led by coalition councils – a largely ANC-aligned coalition in Johannesburg and an ANC-Action SA coalition in Pretoria. Both have been prone to volatility, with the voters suffering as a result. 

Helen Zille is a force to be reckoned with, and in light of Joburg's current sorry state, I think she'll walk it. Tshwane might be more difficult for the DA to secure, but they will likely take that too, using the party's aforementioned repetition of its "good governance" chant. 

That leaves Ekhuruleni, Mangaung, Buffalo City and eThekwini. 

Mangaung – Bloemfontein – has traditionally been an ANC stronghold, but support for the party there has been faltering and there is an opportunity for the likes of the PA and MK Party to make inroads, particularly when you factor in their mercurial leaders in Gayton McKenzie and Jacob Zuma. But the DA won't be far behind and would relish the opportunity to clinch the country's judicial capital. 

Ekhuruleni, Gauteng's East Rand metro, is another place Jacob Zuma's MK Party could shore up support, but my guess is the DA will fight as hard for Ekhuruleni as it will for Joburg. 

Buffalo City is another ANC stronghold, albeit a somewhat forgotten region of South Africa. In 2021, the ANC secured 59% of the vote with the DA clinching less than 20% and the EFF a little ways back at 12%. But back in 2021, there was no MK Party to contend with, and with Buffalo City so close to the party's KZN fortress, it's likely Zuma's campaigners will make inroads in next year's LGE. 

And finally eThekwini; KZN is governed by a fragile coalition between the IFP, ANC, DA, and NFP. With MK already a strong contender with its huge support base in the province, and a motion of no confidence pending against Premier Thami Ntuli, with the NFP expressing support for Zuma's party, MK could already control the province well before the proclamation date of the local government elections. 

It will be a fierce political battle the DA will have to fight, but I think MK will take it. 

One thing we have to remember is that municipal elections are decided on bread-and-butter service delivery issues. Can you ensure I have working street and traffic lights; can you ensure I have clean running water; can you ensure my refuse is collected; can you ensure potholes will be fixed; can you ensure sewage won't be spilling into my street? These are the questions voters will be asking of their political suitors. 

And after the 2026 LGE and the five years of municipal governance that follow, parties will have to prove themselves capable of handling the critical day-to-day things before voters entrust them with national and geo-political decisions. 

But as the dark-horse MK Party proved in the 2024 General Elections, anything can happen. 

Should the DA secure the five metros and endear themselves to residents in those municipalities, it's only a matter of time before they take the Union Buildings in the General Elections in 2029, with the MK Party, or something like it, emerging as the official opposition.

South Africans will need to decide based on the DA's actions, motives, words, and behaviour – its stance on transformation, its view of redress and justice, its pro-business centre-right politics, its stance on the genocide Israel continues to perpetrate against Palestine – if this is the kind of party they want to be led by as a nation.

* Lance Witten is the Editor of IOL.