Plan to win back voters’ confidence
DA WESTERN Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela says the party would be in denial to think that mayor Patricia de Lille has not negatively affected the party, but he believes voters won’t ditch them yet.
The DA’s provincial executive met last night. This comes after the Cape Argus reported that the party was gearing up for its ongoing war with mayor Patricia de Lille, in an attempt to counter a possible backlash at the polls in 2019.
“Any leader who thinks that this issue has not affected the party would be in denial. In general voters get put off by party internal fights. Many of our voters and supporters are not happy with what is happening in the DA,” he said.
However, Madikizela said they were doing all they could to win back the confidence of their voters.
“We are humbling ourselves now and going out to our voters to give them an ear to talk to. We are also looking at the rates of our support in the by-elections; there has been a slight drop, yet we are still winning these by-elections. So anyone who wants to capitalise on the weakness of the DA is not doing so. Our voters won’t ditch us, because they know we deliver services,” Madikizela said.
Asked if the success of a by-election can be used to predict a national or provincial win, Madikizela said: “That is where it begins. We win the support of those small communities. I don’t see our voters subjecting themselves to the ANC leadership. I mean, they don’t even have a leader in the province,” he said.
Provincial campaign manager Anthony Benadie said the campaign would be taken