LIVE: Important DA Campaign Announcement - Media Briefing

[00:00:02][music] Members of the media, South Africans watching at home, welcome to the DA's campaign election update.

[00:00:42]All across South Africa, DA representatives and the blue machine have kicked into high gear as we reach into every city, town, and community to bring the DS message of hope to all South Africans.

[00:00:56]The DA's election campaign is complex and a multi-layered operation. It is a real testament to the party's ability to organize and deliver in every ward, every town and every province throughout the land. We have campaigns running rolling out the DS message of good governance and they are all being coordinated at national level by our two national campaign managers Ashupin and Vneron who will now be taking you through the details and the updates of our campaign. Ash Thanks, Yan. The DA's election campaign for 2026 is going strong and full steam ahead. Our public representatives, our branches, our ancillary organizations, our structures, our members, our activists, and our volunteers are hard at work speaking to South Africans on a day-to-day basis about what ma what matters most to them. The [clears throat] DA's foot soldiers are now present in every corner of the country as our party grows and our structures expand and the footprint of our campaign continues to expand. Our recent victory in Enellaini war 28 was an outright DA victory in a 100% township board. This victory shows that the DA is growing and winning in every part of South Africa. The DA continues to appeal to more and more voters of every demographic and this is reflected not only in our growth in bi-election wins but also external polls and research too. Our membership book continues to grow and now stands at our largest ever number. Paid up and audited party members now number over 140,000 having grown tens of thousands since the DA's entry into the government of national unity. The DA's membership base as a percentage of vote share far exceeds international standards. And the trend in other democracies is declining paid up party membership in favor of more casual online following and social media interaction. The DA backs this trend. This bodess well for us as we head towards the election in November.

[00:02:54]The DA's offer on this election is built on our track record of good governance.

[00:03:00]The D consistently recognized and rated as running the best performing local governments in South Africa. This spans national government reporting like the department of monitoring and evaluation to the auditor general's reporting and stats essay's research and service delivery and living standards as well.

[00:03:15]The rating recent ratings Africa report shows that DA local governments lead the pack in South Africa where the DAG govern things work. Services are delivered water flows from taps.

[00:03:27]Electricity flows to homes and businesses. Street lights work. Roads work and potholes are filled. The local economy is developed and supported. So jobs are created. We have packages together under our election slogan, towns and cities that work for all. And our offer to South Africa is very simple. If you want your town or your city to work, you need a DAL local government. The fullness of our offer will be made in our national manifesto.

[00:03:51]Our manifesto builds in years of DA governance experience blended with aspirational innovations to make life better for millions of South Africans.

[00:03:58]and a very frank account of the serious challenges hundreds of local authorities face today after 32 years of failed governance at a local level. In November last year, the DA's National Policy Conference provided significant direction to our manifesto. And in April this year, the DS Federal Congress passed a series of policy proposals which in turn will provide direction to our manifesto. It is a manifesto that has undergone significant consultation with an array of external inputs, costings and economic modeling and extensive workshopping across the party itself. This past weekend at our federal council, the manifesto went through its final approval step. The manifesto is now ready for launch.

[00:04:37]So these are our plans and we will present our manifesto to the people of South Africa on our launch date. So today we announced that we'll be launching our national manifesto on the 8th of August 2026. that is a Saturday.

[00:04:50]We will hold our manifesto launch in one of the most significant and symbolic places in South Africa. The failure of this particular local metro municipality is has left it devastated and broken and the hope of turning it around now only rests at the ballot box. So the DA will be holding our national manifesto launch in the city of Johannesburg declaring our absolute intention to govern that city and many other places after the election. It will be a political rally with thousands of DA supporters with a keynote speech delivered by DA Federal Leader Jordan Hill Lewis. Banner, over to you.

[00:05:28]Thanks, Asher. Um so the the manifesto is to be launched u fairly early on in the in the campaign cycle after the voters role is closed and uh after that specific moment we will take this offer we make in the manifesto Africans through everywhere in the country. We're quite confident that it will find resonance amongst people of all ages, demographics and geographics.

[00:05:59]People of all economic means, employed and unemployed, those yearning for services and those desperate to keep good DA delivery in place will be reached through uh our campaign u to introduce the the manifesto.

[00:06:18]We will try and meet with voters where they are in their homes where they meet and congregate where they pray at town hall meetings online for those who can log on through a series of campaign events in every province in a scale that we've not seen before. The federal leader Jordan E. Lewis will ultimately lead this charge and details of his participation in rolling out the manifesto, presenting it to South Africans throughout the country will be shared after the manifesto launch.

[00:06:54]We have been first out of the blocks at every step uh important to the local government elections of 2026. We opened our candidate selections before any other party, ensuring that a meticulous and thorough process could be undertaken.

[00:07:12]Our process of candidate selection began in 2025 already. And during this process, we received the highest number ever of aspirant uh candidates for the democratic alliance from a diverse number of wards across South Africa.

[00:07:30]This is another testament to the growth and the size of the DA and it shows that we are now in more places seen as the hope for change and delivery.

[00:07:41]Last night the IEC announced that it's opened the online candidate nomination system and we uh proud to announce that we are already in six out of the nine provinces in a position that our lists are ready for submission. These candidates candidates have been legally vetted, interviewed, tested, their qualifications checked, and they've been put through a rigorous process to assess their work ethic and their commitment to communities.

[00:08:16]This makes it possible to say that we are on track to submit our candidates lists to the IEC well ahead of the deadline as all DA processes are currently proceeding strictly according to our own internal timelines.

[00:08:31]Over and above counselor candidates, the DA has of course also announced may candidates in the metropolitan municipalities and many local mun municipalities across South Africa where we have identified winnable municipalities. DA mayoral candidates are leading the charge to get those places working and that is uh more or less a number more than double the the number of municipalities where we are currently in government. In just the past week we've of course announced may candidates for Chris Papas and in Hunam.

[00:09:07]We note that other parties have promises to ann promised to announce their mayoral candidates earlier this week, but as has sort of come to be expected, it was yet another promise that were broken. We can only speculate that internal temperature there might be too hot to play open cards with voters and residents about who they will put forward as mayoral candidates. Our male candidates in contrast are already hard at work campaigning for wins.

[00:09:41]Asha, thanks Vanna. So since our candidate election has been underway, our campaign has also covered a mammoth national voter registration campaign. Our registration posters remain up, prominent, and visible in every community in South Africa. The DA is preparing for us the second voter registration weekend on the 1st and 2nd of August for a full-scale national registration weekend operation and we will be present at voting stations across the length and breadth of South Africa. The DA's voter registration campaign is working. The DA's goal was to ensure that eligible voters are empowered to get themselves registered to vote on election day and strategically the DA is targeting the registration of DA supporters who need our help to either register the first time or be correctly registered. We are confident that by the time the role closes on the ground, having knocked on doors and spoken to voters directly and facilitated getting them to the IEC, that we will have completed almost 500,000 registrations for the party.

[00:10:40]This is solely based directly on who we have canvased. We are on track for a most successful registration campaign in DA history. There are many other DA voters for whom we do not have direct data on, whom we have not canvased, who may well be registering. In the past 30 days, the DA seen a swell of registrations in DA strongholds and among DA supporters. And our data shows that over 200,000 supporters have successfully registered just in the past 30 days alone. These numbers are heavily concentrated in in the major metros. In Cape Town, we estimate we have registered over 55,000 DA supporters directly. In Nelson Mandela Bay, over 20,000 and in Johannesburg, over 45,000.

[00:11:19]The province of Kheng is now the single largest contributor of DA registration according to the latest voters role.

[00:11:25]This is a very good sign as the DA targets Keng's municipalities to win and to form governments there that work for the people. But voting for change and voting for the DA is only possible if voters are correctly registered to vote.

[00:11:36]So to all DA voters out there, do not wait for election day to find out because then it is already too late.

[00:11:43]Finally, it is no secret that the two major competitors in South African politics are the DA and the ANC. And it's no secret that the DA seeks to win local authorities away from the ANC and by 2029 to overtake the ANC and become South Africa's largest party. We are therefore very enthused to see that voter support remains behind a growing DA stake of votes and the consistent decline in ANC support. This opens up the very real possibilities for new DA local governments in almost 100 municipalities.

[00:12:12]As is no secret, our modeling and research is generally watertight. And currently, our modeling shows that at today's support levels, the ANC is on track to lose approximately 500 council seats. That's massive number. And we estimate that the NC will lose about 11% of its counselors. This opens up a wave of re of renewal and the DA is dead set on contesting every single one of those seats. Our target is to contest and win as many as possible. Certainly many will be lost to the ANC inquisi and Khen and these are the battlegrounds where inroads will be made. So in conclusion we are launching our national manifesto on the 8th of August 2026 in Johannesburg. Our candidate selection processes are on track and six of our nine provincial lists are already complete and approved. Voter registration is going very very well and the DA is set to exceed our targets and at current support levels modeling shows that the NC is on track to lose no less than 500 council seats. Thank you very very much.

[00:13:15]>> Thank you Ashaw and Verer. We will now take questions from the media.

[00:13:23]There any questions?

[00:13:26]I see two hands. You can proceed. Thank you.

[00:13:31]>> Just a couple of questions. My name is just city of Cape Town. I know it's an important um metro important part of your um campaign. the AG's uh findings um well the unqualified audit with findings from the AG um is will this have any impact on your clean governance record in the city of Cape Town in the run-up to the election um do you see this being used against the DA in any way because we know this is the first time there's been a finding it's an unqualified one but there was supply supply chain issues and just on that don't you think that might be an issue going forward for the party in the city of Cape Town and on equitable share withholding by the finance minister or the national treasury which um know Ashaw sits in that in that national treasury as the deputy minister you would have a better understanding of the impact of that decision than anyone um I'm not sure if any of these 69 municipalities any of them are DA controlled in any way I haven't checked that but um will will this have any unintended consequences. I know these municipalities, the DA is quite, you know, invested in a lot of them. Um, Nelson Mandela Bay, the DA, that's one of the metros that are in on that list.

[00:15:01]Is this could this have any unintended consequences for these councils that we already know are, you know, in dire straits uh financially? And just my final question on mayors, have you finalized your mayors for all all 247 councils? basically has the DA finalized that process or are you still are you still busy with that? Thank you.

[00:15:24]>> Thank you very much in Baldi.

[00:15:27]>> Um good afternoon S from News 24. Um just to latch the first question just to latch on to Babalo's question. Are you also worried when you answer Babalo's on the AG but are you worried about the potential impact that um the public protectors report into Langa and Kaich's service delivery failures? Are you worried about how that could also impact on your support going into the elections? Second question, um Mr. Horn, you were talking about for being first out the blocks. Are you perhaps worried that come October all of that energy will be spent essentially and how do you mitigate some of those especially in a context where a lot of people are just done with politicians and voting? And just the last question, you were mentioning about six out of nine um lists being ready. What are some of the issues with the other three provinces and is there an can we get an indication of which three provinces are not ready at this point or gas issues?

[00:16:33]>> Thank you s um I think that's about six questions. So let's do that round first and then we can open it up again. Thank you.

[00:16:43]>> Thanks. So Mabalo on city of Cape Town's AG finding on the supply chain issue.

[00:16:48]It's important to look at what the supply chain issue was. The city disqualified a bidder on the basis that the firm was previously owned. The owner of the firm had a separate company that had previously not been allowed to do business with the city for underperformance.

[00:17:04]And the city's view was very simply that we they look at the ownership. The AG's view was that each entity is a juristic entity on its own and that we couldn't take into account the prior performance of the owner's previous firm. That was the finding. So it was not a finding of maladministration or corruption. That was the finding. And it's important that we look at the facts of what the AG found. So will that be used against us?

[00:17:32]I think it's extremely difficult to argue when you look at the facts of the matter on the equitable share and the 69 municipalities that have been withheld and the core question you asked is are there any unintended consequences for the councils. The reality is that the national treasury has done everything it can to support municipalities. They have produced MFMA circulars. They have constantly sent technical officials out to assist. They have sent warning letters. They have driven processes for many years.

[00:18:04]So what is the withholding of equal share intended to achieve corrective behavior and what have we said needs to be done? The first is fruitless wasteful expenditure unauthorized expenditure and irregular expenditure must be investigated regularized where it can be regularized and there must be consequence management where it was fraudulent or any other of those things. and that people must be held to account first and foremost. The second is that there is a huge amount of debt escom debt is ballooning and mun municipal debt to escom is over 100 billion rand and what we have done with these municipalities is incredibly simple. We've just said to them, pay your bills. Now, many of them come back and say, we can't don't have the money cuz you're withholding the equal share.

[00:18:50]We said perfectly fine. We will release the chant of your money equal to your current account. Pay prove us prove to us that you've paid and then we'll release the rest. Alternatively, enter into credit arrangements and send us a signed credit agreement that you are going to adhere to. And so, it is really a corrective uh mechanism. the unintended consequences of not doing it would be worse because then you have continued reduction in water pressure from water boards when they're not getting paid and they take credit control. Even though individual residents in those municipalities are paying for water, you have load reduction from ESCOM because the municipality is not paying ESCOM. And so the consequences of not acting is far worse. So I don't think that it is a negative action. It's also not intended to be a punitive action. It's intended to be a correction corrective action and I support the Treasury in that 100%.

[00:19:40]We have launched male candidates in all of what we call our strategic municipalities where we believe we have a shot at becoming the largest party and so that is where we have where we have done that. It's in excess of 60. We will not be announcing candidates for all 247 councils. We will be of course submitting full lists for every single municipality and for every single ward for 4,484 wards in the country. Um and where we spring surprises of course we have internal processes ready to make sure that we can from our elected lists um put people into place. The list process is quite vigorous whether you want to be a mayor or just an ordinary counselor and so we are putting forward the most talented people available so that we can be ready to govern anywhere.

[00:20:23]um about the public protector reports.

[00:20:28]It's it's quite critical. The public protector does inspections all over the country and this was one of those in the Cape and I [clears throat] have no doubt that when the public protector continues her work across the rest of the country that she will continue to find other municipalities where corrective action needs to take place. public protects a chapter 9 institution who must and she must continue to do her work independently and we will remediate all of her findings of course and in many cases if you read the report we had already remediated many of her findings before she had published the report and had indicated in that report itself. So that is not a cause for concern. We welcome scrutiny for our governments and we will continue to deliver as best we can within the resources we have. Um I think um on the question of the six or nine provinces lists already the reality is that there are no problems in the other provinces. The federal executive just needs to sit um to consider the lists as they come. We have a multi-step process.

[00:21:26]We've got a federal candidates election committee that looks at the validity and technical compliance of the lists. And when that process is complete it goes to the federal executive for final ratification. So when those lists are completed and ready they go to the federal executive. the federal executive approves them and then we will proceed.

[00:21:43]So there are no issues in that space. I think Vanna you got the question about energy but I'm sure you might want to add to some of the others.

[00:21:52]>> Yeah. Uh look maybe firstly on the six out of nine provinces my Asher is quite correct. Um some of them is just because the federal executive has not found the time to meet. I want to say that in the case of one province we've allowed a bit of leeway in terms of our own uh internal deadlines and that is for the simple reason and that province is KZ N and it's not because we have internal issues but it is because of the very specific dynamics presented by the the uh the massive change in the electoral landscape in in in KZN in 2024 where our structures there felt strongly and we agreed with that they must be allowed to you know let's use the term headunt headunt very specific candidates which will best position us to win more wards than ever before. So that's the simple reason why is is slightly behind the curve in respect of the other provinces but they're still well positioned to finalize their selection processes before the IC's cutoff. Um and and that's once again just a testimony as to how you know let's say um serious political parties should react to to changes in the electoral landscape. It's no longer just a a matter of of necessarily electing um your branch chairperson as a candidate if you because of that fragmentation in the outcomeing wards are are now positioned to surprise everyone and and win a ward where it has been held by other parties for very long. um in respect of the the the comments around maintaining energy momentum and and you you linked that to uh let's say voter fatigue and and the general um apathy out there. Um look firstly we of course try and announce certain stopping points on the road to 2026 internally at least. So that would mean that um after the registration weekend um uh we we allow um our forces 48 hours to rest and then they they hit the the canvasing part of the of the campaign trail so to speak. Now I'm just um making a joke. Um but the long and the short is so people can plan accordingly.

[00:24:13]We have certain um leave periods after important um stopping points on the road to 2026.

[00:24:21]Um, and it's ultimately structured to to position us to deliver the best outcomes with both candidate selection, but also to be uh able to build our credibility in in communities where we've previously not had the best results um around voter fatigue and and and voter apathy out there. It is of course a reality. We've seen a decline in voter turnout over many election cycles.

[00:24:52]Um, and one of the ways in which to address it is of course to knock on more doors than ever before. There's nothing that beats looking a voter in the eye and and asking them despite their previous disappointments around service delivery to to trust somebody new. Um so one of the ways in which we hope to address uh voter apathy and fatigue is is by engaging more voters in person than ever before. And and then lastly maybe um I want to say that there's of course in in politics a a a very true adage to say that um unfortunately because of voter fatigue and apathy sometimes when you sick and tired of your own message some voters hear it for the first time. So, so whilst I have an appreciation that that members of the press, for example, who follow politics, um might think um it it is a a bit of an overkill, the reality is we need to also reach voters who whose whose lives do not turn on politics because their votes will be equally important come the 4th of November. Thanks.

[00:26:06]>> Thank you, Ash and Barner. Um any final questions before we close?

[00:26:12]bother.

[00:26:15]>> Hi, thanks. Just one question on Johannesburg. You'll be launching your manifesto in Joelberg. Um the ANC um has a possible candidate of Reverend Frank Chigan. He's being touted amongst the the leading candidates there. Will he give Helen a good running for her money or is is this a gift from the ANC in Joberg? And just one other question on Joberg. It's a relatively young city. Um the ANC and the DA are fielding the two oldest candidates or possibly the ANC.

[00:26:47]It's not confirmed. Is is is this not an issue? People may raise issues around the recycling of old leaders in the job context in both respects.

[00:26:58]Is is does job not need perhaps a younger face like a Jordan Hill Lewis or a Zoran Mandani? It does not does it not maybe deserve maybe a a demographically younger person in your in your view Ash.

[00:27:12]Thank you.

[00:27:14]>> Ash happy to tell you.

[00:27:17]>> So the ANC has gifted Johannesburg a series of terrible mayors.

[00:27:24]Um, and the truth is they've broken trust so much that I don't really think the idea of a new dawn leader sells for the electorate anymore in from them.

[00:27:39]And they need to introspect about the choices they've made up to now, including allowing mayors from parties that get less than 10,000 votes to hold the mayorship in Johannesburg. So the gift the ANC has given us is that they've actually run the place into the ground to the point where people are desperate for change in Johannesburg and I don't think that there is anyone that they can put into Janisburg right now that can rescue them quite frankly.

[00:28:06]As for Helen's age, Helen is in her 70s going on her 40s as you've seen with her swimming, her rowing, her ab sailing and so on. What Johannesburg needs is someone who's going to deal with the fact that the mafia state has set into the supply chain networks and has the fortitude to go and deal with those tender networks and clean them out and who has the experience of having done so taken having taken over two ANC governments in the past and having turned them around because fundamentally if we don't rescue Johannesburg from corrupt mafias water tanker mafias and and tender networks we are never going to get it working and So what Joberg needs is not a face. It needs someone who's going to solve the underlying structural problems. And who better to solve the underlying structural problems Johannesburg than someone who did in the city of Cape Town and in the Western K province. Um it's not about the optics. It is about the actual work that's being done. And if you speak to voters in Johannesburg, I think you'll find that they literally just say to you, we just want someone who's going to fix the street lights, sort out the potholes and and so on. Um I live in Echolini and I know on the board of Johannesburg and I know which where Echolini ends in Jober starts because the darkness begins on that side because there's no street lights at least in my side of the world. Street lights aren't great in Echolini but at least where I live they do work but I know where Jober starts for example in the evenings.

[00:29:32]So I think that the DA's put forward Helen as the best option for Johannesburg precisely because of her track record precisely because she will clean up corruption, because she will get her hands dirty, because she will give that city and its administrative team the kind of decisive leadership that will begin to rescue its finances.

[00:29:49]Once the finances are sorted, you can start rescuing the essential services.

[00:29:52]And once the essential services are sorted, you can start moving towards growth again in that city. And so I'm fairly confident. Thank you.

[00:30:03]Ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the end of this press engagement. Thank you very much for your attendance.

[00:30:07]Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.

[00:30:14][music] >> We are launching our [music] first ever election campaign poster for November 2026, local government elections.

[00:30:26]There's nothing as disappointing as you wanting to [music] make a change or waking up and saying, "I want to make a change." But only to find out that you are not registered or you are registered in the wrong place.

[00:30:36]>> Because if you're not registered, you can't vote. And you can only vote at the voting station where you are registered.

[00:30:44]>> Even [music] if you don't know who to vote for yet, buy yourself the option by registering to vote. [music] decide to be part of the group that decides what the future of our city should be.

[00:30:56]>> But today, we stand here excited and full of hope because we have an opportunity where we can register and ensure that we vote for a government that will get our city working for its people. [music] >> The choice is going to be very very clear. You're going to have some of the same where you have a failed government in place or you're going to put a new government [music] in place led by the Democratic Alliance. And we are asking you to come out in your numbers and register to vote and vote for the Democratic Alliance on the 4th of November.

[00:31:26]>> So, make sure that you are registered by going to check.da.org.za.

[00:31:31]You can register right now in the comfort of your own home. Remember, go to check.da.org.za.

[00:31:38]Z A and come and [music] vote for a new government on the 4th of November. Cake vun blazer. [music] Thanks for watching. Join the mission to rescue South Africa. Like and follow us on Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram and [music] X. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit that notification bell.

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