Doubts over DA strategy despite healthy gains
Gauteng gobbled major slice of campaign budget, with disappointing results for party
QUESTIONS are likely to be raised in the DA about whether the R100-million the party pumped into its Gauteng campaign — which focused on its candidate for premier, Mmusi Maimane — was worth it.
The DA, which started its campaign believing it could win Gauteng and then scaled down expectations to forcing the ANC below 50% in the province, ended up with neither expectation fulfilled.
Nationally, the party’s initial goal of 30% support was not reached.
This week, DA sources still hoped for 24% national support, so its final result of 22.2% will be a disappointment, although it topped four million votes nationally for the first time.
But DA leader Helen Zille was upbeat, pointing out that increasing the party’s national support from 16.7% to 22.2% was no mean feat. “We grow in every election and we will continue growing. We have doubled our support since I became leader in 2007,” she said.
She planned to remain Western Cape premier, she said, and would not take over parliamentary leadership of the DA.
But inside the party, much of the post-election discussion focused on Gauteng.
The ANC declined from 64% support in the province five years ago to 53.6% now. It was hurt badly by the Economic Freedom Fighters, which won 10.3% of the votes, mainly
It was a good investment, with a fantastic return. Gauteng is the economic hub of South Africa
among urban residents.
The Congress of the People— which was the third-largest Gauteng party in 2009 — polled only 7.8% on Wednesday.
The DA did improve its position in Gauteng from 21.9% support in 2009 to 30.8% this year, and its total Gauteng provincial votes jumped from 908 616 to 1 349 001.
But questions are being raised in the DA about the wisdom of pumping R100-million — roughly half the party’s election budget — into the Maimane-focused Gauteng campaign, which was mostly run on the issues of e-tolls and Nkandla, only occasionally — and belatedly — switching to its supposed core message of job creation.
The party considered three provinces — Gauteng, the Western Cape and Northern Cape — “strategic”, but less money was spent on campaigning in the latter two provinces and even less on the rest of the country.
In the Western Cape, the DA increased its vote from 51% to 60% after a grassroots-driven, positive campaign based on service delivery and local breadand-butter issues such as fishing rights.
Northern Cape DA leader Andrew Louw ran an energetic shoestring campaign, ending up with 23.9% of the provincial vote, up from 12.6% in 2009.
Zille, who was personally heavily invested in the way Maimane’s campaign was run, yesterday vigorously defended the decision to spend the R100-million.
“It was a good investment with a fantastic return.
“Gauteng is the economic hub of South Africa and it was absolutely worth it to ensure we have a platform to win the Johannesburg and Tshwane metros in 2016.
“It was a completely worthwhile investment. We showed 46% growth in Gauteng and it fired up the rest of the country. We are delighted,” said Zille.
The DA grew in every province. In the Eastern Cape, it improved from 10% to 16.2%, in the Free State from 11.6% to 16.3%, in KwaZulu-Natal from 9.2% to 12.8%, in North West from 8.3% to 12.8%, in Limpopo from 3.5% to 6.5%, and in Mpumalanga from 7.5% to 10.4%.
In Mpumalanga and Gauteng, the DA will remain the official opposition.
It unseated the Inkatha Freedom Party as official opposition in KwaZulu-Natal and has re- placed the Congress of the People as the official opposition in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Free State.