A numbers game
Can the DA really win the Union Buildings?
The DA has signalled its intent to be the governing party in 2019, but whichever way you look at the maths, none adds up to this possibility
Responding to the ANC’s January 8 anniversary statement, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said that, come the 2019 national and provincial elections, "we [the DA] aim to occupy the Union Buildings". For a party with 22.3% of the national vote, that represents a remarkably ambitious sentiment — but one the DA is investing heavily in nonetheless. After a meeting of the DA’s federal executive in October, Maimane unveiled a roadmap to 2019 designed, he said, "to achieve our goal of being part of a national government in 2019". One can trace that ambition back further still. In June 2015, at the launch of the DA’s 2029 vision document, which described what SA would look like after 10 years of a DA national government, Gauteng party leader John Moodey described the strategy as "a statement of intent". In the 2014 national and provincial elections, the ANC secured 11.4m votes and the DA 4.1m. To win — or at least be part of a national coalition government — the DA is proposing it will roughly doubl...
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