The Democratic Alliance (DA) is a liberal political party in South Africa, sitting on the centre to centre-right of the political spectrum. It has been the second-largest party in the country since its foundation in 2000. Its main rival is the African National Congress (ANC), which has been the ruling party of South Africa since 1994.

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 Available via WIReDSpace (Wits Institutional Repository on DSpace): item page (HDL 10539/15787), abstract PDF, thesis PDF (archive of old URL). tendencies, including neoliberalism, social liberalism, classical liberalism, and conservative liberalism. The party, considered to be South Africa's most diverse in terms of membership and voters, draws its support predominantly from Afrikaans and English speakers, people aged over 35, as well as white South Africans, Indian/Asian communities, and Coloured communities.

The current leader of the party is Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who assumed leadership on 12 April 2026, after the party's Federal Congress. Ashor Sarupen is Chairperson of both the Federal Council and the Federal Executive, the highest decision-making structures of the party. In the aftermath of the 2024 general election, the DA entered into a ruling grand coalition with the African National Congress (ANC) and various other parties, called a government of national unity, formed by ten parties holding a combined 287 seats in the National Assembly of South Africa (72%).

The DA has governed Cape Town, South Africa's legislative capital and second-largest city by population, with a majority since the 2006 municipal elections. The party has also governed the Western Cape, one of the country's nine provinces, with a majority since the 2009 general election.

History

Beginnings in the Democratic Party Although the Democratic Alliance in its present form is fairly new, its roots can be traced far back in South African political history, through a complex sequence of splits and mergers. The modern day DA is in large part a product of the white parliamentary opposition to the ruling National Party.

The origin of the party can be traced to the mid-1950s when some younger members of the United Party felt that they were not providing strong enough opposition to the National Party and its policy of Apartheid, causing them to break away and form the Progressive Party in 1959.

In the 1970s, as it rose to become the official opposition, the party merged with more splinters from the disintegrating United Party, and become known first as the Progressive Reform Party, and then as the Progressive Federal Party. The Progressives sought to change the system from within, but in doing so chose to comply with Apartheid legislation outlawing multi-racial membership.

During this time, the party was led by liberal-minded opponents of Apartheid, such as Jan Steytler, Helen Suzman, Zach de Beer, Colin Eglin, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and Harry Schwarz. In 1989, it merged with two smaller reformist organisations to become the Democratic Party (DP), a name that was retained into the 1990s when freedom was achieved. It was marginalised by the National Party's shift towards the center after 1990, and fared relatively poorly in the first democratic election in 1994, won by the African National Congress.

The DP established itself as a more effective party of opposition, however, and eventually rose from relative obscurity and ascended to the status of official opposition in 1999 under the leadership of Tony Leon, mainly by taking votes from the New National Party, the renamed version of the NP.

The party also became kingmakers in the Western Cape province, where it formed a coalition government with the NNP. With a fractured national opposition standing against an increasingly dominant governing party, there was a perceived need to better challenge the ANC. To this end, the DP reached a merger agreement with the NNP and the much smaller Federal Alliance (FA) in 2000.

Together, they formed the Democratic Alliance. The merger was ultimately aborted, with both the NNP and FA leaving the DA. Many former NNP members remained, and the new name was kept. The DP was disbanded after the 2003 floor crossing period, establishing the DA at all levels of government in South Africa.

After becoming the Democratic Alliance in 2003

The party consolidated its status as the official opposition in the 2004 general election, while the NNP collapsed. Having gone into opposition in the Western Cape in 2001 when the NNP formed a new coalition with the ANC, the demise of the NNP made the province a natural target for the party.

In the 2006 municipal elections, the DA narrowly gained control of its largest city, Cape Town, in a multi-party coalition. Helen Zille, the then-Mayor of Cape Town, succeeded Leon as DA Leader in May 2007. In 2008, she re-launched the party as one that no longer acts solely as an opposition but also as an alternative choice for government.

The party also introduced a new logo and a new slogan. Zille said the new DA would be, "more reflective of our rich racial, linguistic, and cultural heritage," and emphasized that she wanted it to be a "party for all the people" and not decline into a "shrinking, irrelevant minority."

Continuing its growth, in the 2009 South African general election, the DA won an overall majority in the Western Cape, and Zille became the new provincial premier. In her newsletter, she wrote that, "winning power in the Western Cape will allow us to show what cooperative governance between local authorities and a province can achieve." In the 2011 local government elections, the party won control of most of the municipalities in the Western Cape.

In 2013, the DA launched the "Know Your DA" campaign, in an attempt to try to show that the DA (via its proxy predecessor organisations) was involved in the struggle against apartheid. This campaign focused mainly on the role played by a few key individuals in opposing apartheid – particularly Helen Suzman and Helen Zille.

The campaign received a certain amount of media attention, much of it somewhat sceptical. The ANC issued a detailed critique of the campaign, focusing especially on Suzman's role in the apartheid parliament. Partially on the basis of this campaign the DA contested the 2014 general election, where it once again grew its support base but failed in its stated goal of winning Gauteng province.

In the municipal elections of 2016, the DA made significant gains along with other opposition parties in some of the country's most important metropolitan areas. The DA currently governs Tshwane (including Pretoria, the administrative capital), Cape Town (South Africa's second-largest city and legislative capital) and various other municipalities.

In the general elections of 2019, the DA's national support declined for the first time in its history. The party retained control of the Western Cape but with a reduced majority and failed to win Gauteng once again. The conservative Freedom Front Plus (FF+) made significant gains on the DA in the Afrikaner community. In the aftermath of the election, the FF+ continued to make inroads in former DA strongholds.

Recent developments

In the run-up to the 2024 general election, the DA joined the Multi-Party Charter, an electoral alliance taking advantage of the unpopularity of the ANC. The ANC failed to gain a majority of seats in the National Assembly after the election, leading to the DA agreeing to form a coalition of national unity (Third Cabinet of Cyril Ramaphosa), entering ruling government for the first time.

On 4 February 2026, DA Leader John Steenhuisen announced that he would be stepping down from his party leadership role, to focus exclusively on his portfolio as Minister of Agriculture. During his speech in his hometown of Durban, Steenhuisen highlighted the major success of the DA, under his leadership, of joining the ruling national government for the first time, after the party played a major role in the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU).

The decision to step down as DA Leader was widely viewed to open the door for highly popular Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis. Cape Town has held the status of South Africa's best-administered metropolitan area for numerous years. Under DA leadership at the City of Cape Town, the city has passed multiple consecutive clean audits, handed over the highest number of affordable housing units to applicants, and spearheaded multiple major public infrastructure development projects (including one that was the largest in the country's history). Hill-Lewis announced his candidacy for DA Leader on 27 February 2026.

At the DA's Federal Congress in April 2026, Hill-Lewis was elected DA leader, defeating the DA's caucus leader in Sedibeng District Municipality, Sibusiso Dyonase. The party's Gauteng provincial leader Solly Msimanga was elected Federal Chairperson, the party's second-highest position, having defeated incumbent Ivan Meyer. Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen won the election to succeed Helen Zille as Chairperson of the Federal Council.

In June 2026, the party's head of policy and Member of Parliament Mathew Cuthbert was appointed the party's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Cuthbert filled the position nearly five years after the previous CEO Simon Dickinson resigned following a year in the role.

Formation and mergers 1959 – Progressive Party breaks away from United Party. 1975 – Progressive Party merges with Harry Schwarz's Reform Party, to form Progressive Reform Party. 1977 – Progressive Reform Party merges with the Committee for a United Opposition to form the Progressive Federal Party. 1989 – PFP merges with Denis Worrall's Independent Party and National Democratic Movement, to form Democratic Party. 2000 – Democratic Party merges with the New National Party and the Federal Alliance, to form the Democratic Alliance. 2001 – New National Party quits the Democratic Alliance and later merges with the ANC (2005). 2010 – Democratic Alliance begins absorbing Patricia de Lille's Independent Democrats. 2011 – Democratic Alliance absorbs Ziba Jiyane's South African Democratic Convention.

Federal Leaders

Tony Leon, 2000 - 2007 Helen Zille, 2007 - 2015 Mmusi Maimane, 2015 - 2019 John Steenhuisen, 2019 - 2026 Geordin Hill-Lewis, 2026 - present

Ideology and principles The DA is variously described as centre-left, centrist to a centre-right party. Reproduced from: Relevant phrase: "the DA whose centre-right position in South African politics could now face a credible challenge for the first time" the DA sums up its political philosophy as the belief in an "Open Opportunity Society for All". Former party leader Helen Zille has argued that this stands in direct contrast to the ruling ANC's approach to governance, which she maintains has led to a "closed, crony society for some". This formed the basis of the philosophy underlying the party's 2009 Election Manifesto, which seeks to build a society by linking outcomes to "opportunity, effort and ability".