DA's last three hours: Hill-Lewis makes final pitch as polls close at 9pm

The Democratic Alliance spent the last three hours of voting day telling South Africans to use them. In a post on its official X account, the party said polls close at 9pm and urged voters to take their ID to their voting station, fronting the message with a video from its leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis.

The party’s pitch in the post was local. “Time to get our towns and cities working for all,” it said, framing the ballot around the running of municipal services rather than national politics. The post carried the hashtag #VoteDA and a clock emoji counting down the remaining hours.

The message is a get-out-the-vote appeal rather than a policy announcement, and it does not set out new commitments. What it does show is where the party chose to put its leader in the final hours: not in a debate over national government, but in a direct appeal to voters to reach a station before closing time.

The DA has long campaigned on its record in the municipalities it runs, and on service delivery as the test of local government. Hill-Lewis, as party leader, is the face of that argument in this closing message.

The post gives no turnout figures, no results and no indication of how voting has gone during the day. It asks only for the vote, and it asks for it before 9pm.