Democratic Alliance | |
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Abbreviation | DA |
Federal Leader | John Steenhuisen |
Federal Chairperson | Ivan Meyer |
Deputy Federal Chairpersons | JP Smith Solly Malatsi Anton Bredell |
Federal Council Chairperson | Helen Zille[1] |
Deputy Federal Council Chairpersons | Ashor Sarupen Annelie Lotriet Thomas Walters |
Founded | 24 June 2000 |
Preceded by | Democratic Party New National Party Federal Alliance |
Ideology | |
Political position | Centre[A] |
International affiliation | Liberal International |
Continental affiliation | Africa Liberal Network |
Colours | Blue |
Slogan | "Freedom, Fairness, Opportunity and Diversity" |
National Assembly | 87 / 400 |
NCOP | 20 / 90 |
Pan African Parliament | 1 / 5 |
SADC Parliamentary Forum | 1 / 6 |
Provincial Legislatures | 89 / 487 |
Cape Town City Council | 135 / 231 |
Website | |
da.org.za | |
^ A: It is attributed to both centre-left and centre-right policies and is often described with either label. |
The Democratic Alliance is a South African political party which is a part of the current South African Government of National Unity (GNU) together with the African National Congress (ANC), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), and several others. The party has been the second-largest in South Africa since its foundation in 2000. The party is broadly centrist,[4][5] and has been attributed both centre-left[6] and centre-right[7][8][9] 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 has a variety of ideologically liberal[10] tendencies, including neoliberalism,[11] social liberalism,[12] classical liberalism,[12] and conservative liberalism.[13][14]
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.[15] Helen Zille is chairperson of both the Federal Council and the Federal Executive, the highest decision-making structures of the party.[16] 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.
In aftermath of the 2024 general election, the DA entered into a ruling grand coalition with the ANC and various other parties, called a government of national unity, formed between ten parties with jointly 287 seats in the House of Assembly (72%).[17][18]
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).
Zille...is seen as representing a conservative-liberal grouping within the DA.
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