The DA wants to be the majority party in 2029,but it needs to secure more votes,particularly from traditionally black communities. Delegates say perceptions around the DA being a “whites-only” party turn away voters from these communities. Clear language around the DA’s governance and service delivery is what black delegates point to as a defining way to gain support.
As the DA concludes its federal congress with a renewed focus on attracting a diverse pool of voters,black delegates argue that the party’s challenge lies not in appealing to black voters but in overcoming what they describe as “stigma” and narratives propagated by political opponents.
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In an interview with News24 on Saturday,former DA leader John Steenhuisen said that for the DA to go from being a 20% party to the largest party in South Africa,it must do two things: “Hold on to [its] current base. Try to unite and keep them together. And break into new votes. Make a compelling offer to black South Africans about why we are a party that can take you from a shack in Soshanguve into a decent house.”
But the reality on the ground,as many black delegates have said,is a perception that the party is a “whites-only” party.
Refiloe Nt’sekhe,a delegate who joined the party in 1994,said: “The most unfortunate thing is you have to deal with narratives from other political parties that keep lying and saying the DA is the party that will bring apartheid.”
She said that often during election periods,the party’s opponents,specifically the ANC,leaned into pre-1994 footage “to try and sell the wrong narrative of what the DA is about during elections”.
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Nt’sekhe said:
I love being in the DA. I also feel the DA is my baby. I’ve been in this organisation for 31 years,and I’m one of the people who feel I’ve carried the DA on my back. I’ve been a national director for the party reporting into head office,where I looked after 150 ANC strongholds,fighting to get the DA message throughout the country.
She said it meant that she was taking care of 150 wards,from Venda up to Qunu.
“I was instrumental in making sure that we translate the DA message into vernacular and get it to people to understand that the DA is really the party that can,you know,unite South Africans around non-racialism,” said Nt’sekhe,who is the author of at least 10 resolutions to the congress.
Unlike Nt’sekhe,who has only one known political home,Wonga Potwana,a delegate from Matatiele in the Eastern Cape,left the ANC to join the DA in 2011.
“I was in the executive of the ANC. I was in the ANC’s sub-region. When things didn’t go the way they were supposed to... I then saw which other political party was there.”
Potwana said he looked at the other parties available to him,including the United Democratic Movement (UDM) and the African Independent Congress (AIC),which was born in Matatiele.
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“I think you can see how diverse we are,and we are the only party in South Africa that is very,very diverse. The most important thing is that you go to the Eastern Cape. I’ll talk about Alfred Nzo,the poorest of the poor in that region,where the ANC always gets 96%. Meanwhile,people don’t have water,they have lights,they don’t have roads.
“That tells you the stigma where our people are still aligning themselves with is the problem,” Potwana said.
Another ANC defector,Bongani Nkwanyana from Johannesburg,told News24 he ditched the party in the mid-1990s to join the then Democratic Party because of the ANC’s failures.
Nkwanyana said there was “plenty of opportunity” for the DA to become even bigger because there was a leadership vacuum caused by the “ANC’s lies” and service delivery failures,such as potholes,a lack of water,among other things.
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He said the DA would offer residents the truth and service delivery. He said the DA should strike a deal with the voters “by giving us your vote for five years and we’ll make sure we deliver services,but if we fail,you can give others your vote”.
Stellenbosch – a DA enclave
Contrary to popular belief,black people don’t constitute a minority in Stellenbosch,a DA stronghold.
And it is this constituency the DA must pursue to drive its growth,according to some delegates. As a result,the DA activists campaign “daily” in four ANC wards in Stellenbosch.
Delegates from Stellenbosch believe the party has the potential to increase its national support up to 40% by delivering services in neglected communities.
Zintle Olayi,a delegate from Stellenbosch,said she was lured by the party’s ideology and values in 2018. Olayi said there is a notion that the DA is a “white party”,which is “completely false”.
She said the party is diverse,but supporters “aren’t coming as much as we want”. “However,we’re gaining traction in those communities in Stellenbosch,” Olayi said.
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Reggie Pfeiffer,who is the DA’s campaign head in the greater Stellenbosch area,where he is responsible for luring black voters,set out the party’s plan to convince “high-growth areas”,which are predominantly black African households.
He acknowledged it was “very difficult” for the DA to make inroads in some black communities,considering the “traditional vote and the history of the country”.
“What we must do as the DA is change the minds of the voters through service delivery,” Pfeiffer said.
“We cannot neglect this or that area because the DA doesn’t have high support there.”
Lwando Nkamisa,a delegate and councillor from the Stellenbosch Local Municipality,joined the party in 2013 while at the University of Fort Hare. Nkamisa joined the party because he wasn’t seeing the service delivery that was promised.
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“I was never recruited based on titles but on proven track record,” Nkamisa said.
On how the party can grow further,Nkamisa said:
For us to grow across South Africa,we have to focus on service delivery. We have to link service delivery with the politics; we have to claim our good governance. We have to go door to door in every household,explain to them how the DA is making their lives better; not just better for one colour but better for all South Africans.
One person who has routinely faced questions about the DA's ability to attract black voters is former Western Cape provincial leader and DA MP Bonginkosi Madikizela.
“I think in most cases,we speak about our record,and I mean,where we are governing. And of course,no one is disputing that. But I think we must start speaking to people,direct the message to their hearts rather than their minds,” he said.
DA MP Bonginkosi Madikizela.
Storm Simpson/News24
Madikizela said the party had previously been accused of not being empathetic enough.
“Sometimes we say the right things,but with the wrong tone. Sometimes people see us as very arrogant,aloof,and those are the things that really we need to correct,” he said.
Members of the party,he argued,must be part of civil society and community organisations,so that they can experience what was happening in the communities they want to attract.
“Instead of people seeing you as the DA,they see you as a human who is in touch with their issues and who is dealing with them – and I think that’s a culture that we need to embed,” said Madikizela.
“The perception right now that you can’t run away from is that the DA is the white party,and we need to really be out there communicating this message and showing people the difference between where the DA is governing and where the ANC for example,is governing,because the reality is that there’s no contest,there’s no competition,” he said.
Another delegate,City of Cape Town councillor Mzameki Sibunzi,told News24 that people knew the DA delivered from Cape Town to KwaZulu-Natal. Now,the messaging must be further emphasised.
City of Cape Town PR councillor Mzameki Sibunzi.
Storm Simpson/News24
Sibunzi said that now is the time for South Africans to give the DA a mandate via voting. “It’s a five-year period – a borrowed contract of sorts – and then make it permanent if it worked.”
Dineo Masiu Njokweni,a City of Cape Town ward councillor and DA delegate,joined the party in 1996,when the party had a scattering of support in Khayelitsha,where she stayed. “Believe you,the first time when we voted for the DA,we only had six votes in Khayelitsha,” she said.
City of Cape Town ward councillor Dineo Masuku.
Storm Simpson/News24
Now,the party is growing in support in one of Cape Town’s biggest suburbs.
Right now,Masiu Njokweni is a councillor in the Delft region,an area that has a growing black community.
“What really worked for me is to show the people that the DA is here to serve the people,” she said and made examples of informing people what the DA did in the government of national unity and in Parliament,as many community members did not understand how and where decisions are made.
“Remember when you were a councillor of the DA,you are there to stand for the DA,and the people don’t see the person because whatever I do,people see the DA in me. So if I serve as one person,that person is going to say the DA is doing work,great work in the community,” she said.
On the other hand,she argued as an example,the DA could assist proportional representative (PR) councillors more,as those councillors might not be elected ward councillors,but they represent a group of wards in an area.
In the DA’s case,she pointed out,PR councillors in places like Khayelitsha,“they are mostly black people – our PR councillors,they work really... hard. If we put support there to get those people out,to groom the activists,if you start from the ground level,give them leadership skills,give them skills so that they can become something”.
💙🇿🇦 A new era begins with a clear mission: Getting South Africa Working.
As we head toward the local elections,these are the leaders who will drive real change to bring reliable services to every community.
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In February 2026,Freddy Sonakile became the DA’s first black leader in the North West. He told News24 the party’s one-size-fits-all approach could be changed as not everyone lived in the Western Cape,where the DA has governed for over a decade.
“For a person in a rural area in the North West,they don’t even know what an audit is. They don’t even know what a good audit entails and all that,” he said.
DA North West leader Freddy Sonakile.
Storm Simpson/News24
In his province,the message needed to focus on how service delivery and investment would be implemented.
“It’s not that our messaging has been bad,but it has been that we have been doing one-size-fits-all. What works in the Western Cape because we are leading there,we think will work in the North West. It won’t.”
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