Democratic Alliance (South Africa)

Democratic Alliance
Demokratiese Alliansie
AbbreviationDA
Federal LeaderJohn Steenhuisen
Federal ChairpersonIvan Meyer
Deputy Federal ChairpersonsJP Smith
Solly Malatsi
Anton Bredell
Federal Council ChairpersonHelen Zille[1]
Deputy Federal Council ChairpersonsAshor Sarupen
Annelie Lotriet
Thomas Walters
Founded24 June 2000 (2000-06-24)
Preceded byDemocratic Party
Ideology
Political positionCentre[5][6]
National affiliationMulti-Party Charter
International affiliationLiberal International
Continental affiliationAfrica Liberal Network
Colours  Blue
Slogan"Freedom, Fairness, Opportunity and Diversity"
National Assembly
84 / 400
NCOP
20 / 90
Pan African Parliament
1 / 5
SADC Parliamentary Forum
1 / 6
Provincial Legislatures
89 / 430
Cape Town City Council
135 / 231
Website
www.da.org.za

The Democratic Alliance (DA; Afrikaans: Demokratiese Alliansie) is a South African political party and the official opposition to the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The party is broadly centrist, and has been attributed both centre-left[7] and centre-right[8] policies. It is a member of Liberal International and the Africa Liberal Network. The DA traces its roots to the founding of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party in 1959, with many mergers and name changes between that time and the present. The DA ideologically shows a variety of liberal tendencies, including social liberalism,[9] classical liberalism,[9] and conservative liberalism.[10]

The current leader of the party is John Steenhuisen, who was announced as the new leader on 1 November 2020 after the party's Federal Congress. He had previously acted as the interim leader of the party from November 2019 to November 2020.[11] Helen Zille is chairperson of both the Federal Council and the Federal Executive, the highest decision-making structures of the party.[12] In addition to governing several major metropolitan municipalities, the DA has been governing the Western Cape, one of South Africa's nine provinces, since the 2009 general election, having won a bigger majority at the election in 2014, but slightly losing support in the 2019 election. As of 2014, the party draws its support predominantly from Afrikaans- and English-speaking people (>80% of its voters), people aged over 35 (>65%), and white people (>50%), as well as the Indian and Coloured communities.[13]

  1. ^ Manyathela, Clement. "Helen Zille is the new DA Federal Council chair". ewn.co.za. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  2. ^ Letita Rohanlall (2014). "Party Ideology in South Africa" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  3. ^ "South Africa's Democratic Alliance Weathers Twitter Scandal".
  4. ^ "South Africa's opposition vows anti-corruption fight". Deutsche Welle. 23 February 2019.
  5. ^ Ibrahim Abraham, ed. (2021). Race, Class and Christianity in South Africa: Middle-Class Moralities. Routledge. ISBN 9781000426809.
  6. ^ Bertus de Villiers; Joseph Marko; Francesco Palermo; Sergiu Constantin, eds. (2021). Litigating the Rights of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in Domestic and International Courts. BRILL. p. 60. ISBN 9789004461666. As a political force the Afrikaans community in the 2019 general election principally supported two political parties at a national level, the centrist Democratic Alliance and the conservative Freedom Front Plus (Saba 2019).
  7. ^ Focus on Gordhan and Manuel, John Matisonn, 29 April 2009, "Many DA policies are to the left of Cope [itself a centre-right party]"
  8. ^ A critique of the Democratic Alliance Archived 22 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Frans Cronje, South African Institute of Race Relations, november 2008 "...the DA whose centre-right position in South African politics could now face a credible challenge for the first time"
  9. ^ a b Yusuf Sayed and Robert Van Niekerk (9 June 2023). "Ideology and the good society in South Africa: the education policies of the Democratic Alliance" (PDF). Southern African Review of Education, 23 (1): 52–69. ISSN 1563-4418.
  10. ^ Pather, Raeesa (24 October 2019). "Will the DA survive Mmusi Maimane's resignation?". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 14 July 2021. Zille...is seen as representing a conservative-liberal grouping within the DA.
  11. ^ "John Steenhuisen elected DA's new leader". EWN. 1 November 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  12. ^ Gerber, Jan (9 October 2019). "EXPLAINED l What is the DA's federal council". News24. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  13. ^ "The supporter profiles of SA's three largest parties – Ipsos – NEWS & ANALYSIS – Politicsweb". Politicsweb. Ipsos. 5 February 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016.