Burned by its 2019 ‘woke’ experiment, the DA is unlikely to follow the same path leading up to 2024

Ahead of the 2019 national and provincial elections, the Democratic Alliance embarked on a change of strategy to try to sell the party to black voters as a viable non-racial  alternative to the governing ANC.

The strategy failed to bring on board black voters and alienated some existing white voters, culminating in Mmusi Maimane stepping down as the DA’s first black leader and leaving the party after a disastrous showing at the ballot in 2019.

With its current leader John Steenhuisen — most likely — at the helm, the DA looks set to default to its original setting for the 2024 elections, playing it safe to retain its traditional support base while trying to dislodge the ruling ANC and emerge as the leader of a national coalition.

The merger with Patricia De Lille’s Independent Democrats in 2010, the election of Lindiwe Mazibuko as party leader in 2011 and the appointment of former Black Consciousness activist Mamphela Ramphele as co-leader with Helen Zille in 2014 had all been aimed at creating a breakthrough moment with black voters.

The DA took 22.2% of the vote in the national and provincial elections in 2014, and following the election of Maimane as leader in May 2015, improved on its showing, ousting the ANC in Johannesburg and securing 26.3% of the vote nationwide in the 2016 local government election.

Maimane — and DA leaders aligned with him — believed that the only way the party could grow beyond its role as the official opposition was to present itself as a viable, non-racial alternative to the ANC.