The DA says it has broken through its traditional electoral ceiling after ward gains in Emfuleni placed control of the Sedibeng District Municipality within reach, potentially shifting power across southern Gauteng.
Federal chairperson Solly Msimanga said its performance in the three municipalities was proof of the breakthrough, with the district within reach once ward, proportional-representation and district council allocations were completed.
Sedibeng comprises Emfuleni, Midvaal and Lesedi local municipalities. It includes Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark, Meyerton and Heidelberg, as well as the townships of Evaton, Sebokeng, Boipatong, Bophelong, Sharpeville and Ratanda.
The DA governs Midvaal. Its route to the district rests on weakening the ANC in Emfuleni and adding support in Lesedi.
Wards taken from ANC
Msimanga said the DA had taken 10 wards from the ANC in Emfuleni after previously winning Ward 28 in a by-election. “We took almost all the wards there and we retained our own ward. That talks to the kind of campaign that we have run,” he said.
He stopped short of claiming control before the allocation calculations were finalised. “You have to look at three things. You have to look at what the wards are saying, what the PR is saying and what your district allocation will then be.”
Political shift in the Vaal
District councils combine representatives allocated from their local municipalities with elected district representatives. The DA must translate local gains into sufficient representation across Sedibeng rather than rely on the number of wards captured in Emfuleni.
Msimanga said the calculations would include Emfuleni’s contribution to the district, the DA’s position in Midvaal and the outcome in Lesedi, which includes Heidelberg.
“We are excited about our contribution there. It means that you might have the district that might ultimately be controlled by the DA.”
He said the party was looking at taking one or two additional wards in Lesedi, strengthening its district allocation.
The ambition would mark a political shift in the Vaal region, where Emfuleni is the population centre and the ANC has historically dominated areas outside the DA-run Midvaal municipality.
Msimanga described the emerging result as a “complete turnaround” that voters had previously considered unlikely.
The DA’s district claim remains subject to final IEC results and the allocation of seats. But it reveals that the party is looking beyond individual ward victories towards control of a second layer of government in Gauteng.
Breakthrough among black voters
Msimanga linked the Sedibeng push to the DA’s broader claim that it had broken its traditional electoral ceiling among black voters.
“The media has always said that the DA will never go above a certain amount in the black townships. As we speak now, we have over a million votes that are coming from the townships to us.”
The figure is based on the DA’s internal election modelling and awaits confirmation against final certified results. The party has not publicly explained the methodology used to classify voters by race.
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said the party had achieved its best result in Cape Town’s townships. He described results from communities including Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Langa, Mfuleni and Delft as “nothing short of extraordinary”.
The party’s federal council chairperson, Ashor Sarupen, estimated that more than a million black South Africans had voted for the party.
He said the DA had overtaken the EFF among black voters.
Msimanga said the result supported the DA’s argument that it could appeal across racial lines without allowing race to define its campaign.
The party is attempting to take black working-class wards from the ANC and recover coloured voters who moved to the Patriotic Alliance in Eldorado Park and surrounding Johannesburg communities.
Msimanga said the DA was “growing back” in those wards while expanding in townships in Pretoria and Johannesburg.
- The DA says it has broken through its traditional electoral ceiling after ward gains in Emfuleni placed control of the Sedibeng District Municipality within reach, potentially shifting power across southern Gauteng.
- Federal chairperson Solly Msimanga said its performance in the three municipalities was proof of the breakthrough, with the district within reach once ward, proportional-representation and district council allocations were completed.
- Sedibeng comprises Emfuleni, Midvaal and Lesedi local municipalities.
- It includes Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark, Meyerton and Heidelberg, as well as the townships of Evaton, Sebokeng, Boipatong, Bophelong, Sharpeville and Ratanda.
- The DA governs Midvaal.
