DA says it is ready to take more towns and cities as it grows across South Africa

The Democratic Alliance says it is growing across South Africa and is ready to take more towns and cities forward.

In a post on its official X account on 5 November, the party said history is being made and that it is strong and ready to represent South Africans.

“Across South Africa, the DA is growing,” the post reads. “The DA is strong, and ready to represent you, and to take more towns and cities forward, for all.”

The post was published by the party’s national account, @Our_DA, and is the party’s own statement of its standing and its ambitions. It carries no membership figures, no polling, no by-election results and no list of the councils it has in its sights. Readers weighing the party’s position therefore have its word for the direction of travel, and nothing in the post by which to measure it.

What the post does set out is the argument the DA intends to take into the next round of local government contests. The party describes itself as ready to represent voters and to take more towns and cities forward, which places municipal government at the centre of how it wants to be judged.

It also restates the party’s broader pitch. “We believe in a rainbow nation where every voice matters,” the post reads. “We know that South Africa can work for all, and we will build that country together.”

The language is expansive rather than technical. It speaks to voters as a whole rather than to any single province, metro or ward, and it does not single out a municipality the party expects to win or defend.

Local government is where the DA’s record is most directly tested. The party governs a number of councils and has used its time in them to argue that its administration delivers services that others do not. Whether that argument travels beyond its current strongholds is the question its opponents will put to it, and the question the post does not answer.

On the evidence of the post alone, the party is making a claim about momentum. It is not presenting the arithmetic behind it. South Africans will hear the claim in the months ahead and will be able to test it against the only measure that counts, which is the vote.

The Enquirer has asked the DA for the membership figures, polling and by-election results behind its statement that it is growing, and for the towns and cities it intends to contest. The party’s answer will be reported when it comes.

The post appeared on 5 November under the party’s national handle and was still carried on the account at the time of writing.