DA tanking? That’s a figment of people’s imaginations, says John Steenhuisen

Nominations for the DA leadership have been opened and an internet portal has been set up for input on the party’s values, attitudes and behaviour policy offering, it announced on Sunday.

Interim leader John Steenhuisen, who is vying for the role of party leader, said it was an opportunity for the DA to have a fresh start.

The party will hold a policy conference in April and in May, it will hold its Federal Congress to elect its federal leader, federal chairperson and three deputy federal chairpersons.

The federal council chairperson and deputy chairpersons, as well as the federal chairperson of finance, will also be elected at the congress in Johannesburg.

“This is the opportunity to resolve and reset. They are opportunities, I believe, to achieve real unity and common purpose. After this, we will emerge stronger and more united,” said Steenhuisen.

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He made the remarks on Sunday at the party’s Bruma headquarters following a two-day federal council meeting.

Steenhuisen said the DA had learnt some lessons from its dismal showing at the 2019 national elections but refused to believe polls that showed a continued downward trajectory for the party.

“The only poll that matters to us is the one on election day. Our internal polling, which has been very accurate over the course of last year, shows us [that] the notion that the DA is tanking is completely false,” said Steenhuisen,

He said the notion that the party was tanking was “a figment of people’s imaginations”.

This is even though the party’s polls wrongfully predicted, in the last elections, that it would perform better.

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While admitting that the party had made some mistakes, he insisted it learnt from these and was correcting some of the issues highlighted in a high-level report into the party.

“Election results don’t have to be fatal, provided that you learn lessons from them and are able to do the course correction required to not make the same mistakes again,” he said.

He added that the DA faced the dual task of having to win back lost voters, while trying to attract new ones who never considered putting their faith in the party.

These comments come ahead of the 2021 local government polls.

The DA, which made inroads in numerous metros through coalition governments and a working relationship with the EFF, has since lost control of some of these, including the City of Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay.