It is the end of the road for the DA-led multiparty charter (MPC) following the poor performance of most members in the elections this week. The parties in the alliance were due to meet in Johannesburg last night to reflect on the outcome of the voting before formally disbanding, insiders said.
With more than 99% of the votes counted late yesterday, the leading parties in the group — the DA, the IFP, FF+ and ActionSA — had amassed only 28% between them. Formed last year, the group said it aimed to attain 50%+1 to oust the ANC and prevent an ANC-EFF coalition replacing it.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said he was disappointed but lessons had been learnt.
“ActionSA told us they were going to bring 10.56% of votes to the table, it doesn’t look like that is going to materialise,” he said. Herman Mashaba’s party had just one-tenth of that target by late yesterday.
“Keeping a strong group of people that have come together on values and principles is going to be invaluable as we navigate the waters in terms of coalition politics,” Steenhuisen said.
He said he was not closing the door on future co-operation.
“We have a local government election in two years and we can possibly look at how we can expand the rational centre in South Africa rather than abandon it. I still see a great future for the MPC and its parties, either in its current configuration or in a new configuration with other parties that decide to join us.”
IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa said he was pleased with his party's performance — it obtained nearly 3.9% of the national total — and the MPC had achieved at least part of its objective.
Our base as the IFP is solid, we increased our voter base in terms of numbers. Unfortunately it is other parties who have suffered severely
— Velenkosini Hlabisa
“Our base as the IFP is solid, we increased our voter base in terms of numbers. Unfortunately it is other parties who have suffered severely. The idea was to push the ANC below 50% so that the IFP becomes part of a new government and has a strong voice — so the first goal is achieved.”
The ANC’s plunge in support to about 40% was largely due to the emergence of Jacob Zuma’s MK Party.
The relationship between the DA and ActionSA was acrimonious throughout the short lifespan of the MPC, and ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont criticised the DA again as the results came in.
“It is sad that the DA used us as a platform to advance themselves at the expense of the charter project,” he said.
“The DA has been mooting the idea of a coalition with the ANC since 2019. What’s starting to emerge for us is the MPC was actually a Trojan horse for the DA to purport to be associated with a change project in South Africa whereas their plan was to always work with the ANC.”
Beaumont said the blinkers had come off as the DA’s real strategy during the campaigning.
“Over the last few weeks, the language in the MPC changed from what was once a fundamental exclusion of any possibility to work with the ANC — to actually saying that nothing is off the table.
“The DA is trying to turn this into a collective bargaining agreement so that it becomes a cover for their betrayal of the voters.”
Beaumont noted that the original MPC agreement had included undertakings by all participants that they would not “entertain working relationships with the ANC”.
Beaumont conceded the undertaking was not legally binding. “No court will ever find such an agreement to be treated like a contract. It was a commitment to the voters.”
He said the DA’s supporters would be betrayed by any partnership Steenhuisen now forged with the ANC, which needs coalition partners to stay in power.
"[The DA] are going to owe their voters an apology because they have spent the last 30 years galvanising their voters on everything that is anti-ANC and its government.
“And now they’re going to have to try and justify how it is that they’ve taken all those votes and given them to the very party they wanted to rescue South Africa from. That’s between them and their voters. We’re going to be campaigning all the way to 2026 to provide comfort to those voters who feel betrayed.”
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