DA caught in unenviable political bind
The results of the recent municipal by-elections have confirmed that the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s leading opposition party, is in trouble. Whereas the governing ANC retained 64 wards, won six new ones and lost just two, the DA retained 14, won just two new ones and lost nine, mainly to smaller opposition parties. And the party has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Although it ran a slick virtual federal congress in October at which John Steenhuisen trounced Mbali Ntuli by securing the backing of 80% of those who voted in a party leadership contest, it attracted negative headlines by preventing the pair
