Democratic Alliance

Democratic Alliance (DA), liberal political party in South Africa, formed in 2000, one of the two main parties in South Africa, the other being the African National Congress (ANC).

The origins of the DA date from 1959 when liberal members of the United Party (UP), angered by its failure to present a credible alternative to the apartheid policies of the ruling National Party (now the New National Party, NNP), left to establish the Progressive Party (PP). The PP believed in a free market economy, constitutional reform, human rights, an independent judiciary, and the introduction of federalism.

In the 1961 general election only Helen Suzman was returned to parliament, where she remained the sole PP representative for the next 13 years. In the 1974 general election Suzman was joined by a further six PP MPs, the party’s representation in parliament soon rising to eight MPs. In 1975 the PP amalgamated with the Reform Party, a breakaway party from the UP, to create the Progressive Reform Party (PRP). Two years after this, another series of dissident UP members formed the Committee for a United Opposition, and this joined with the PRP to form the Progressive Federal Party (PFP), which assumed the role of official opposition. Support for the PFP came from liberal, white, English-speaking South Africans.

After the 1987 general election the far-right Conservative Party replaced the PFP as the official opposition, and several disillusioned PFP MPs left to join the National Democratic Movement (NDM). Two years later, the PFP merged with the NDM to form the Democratic Party (DP). The DP won 36 seats in the 1989 general election. Consequently, the DP played a major role in the negotiation of a new constitution that resulted in the end of apartheid and the first free elections in South Africa in 1994. However, in those elections the DP won just 1.7 per cent of the vote and 10 seats. In the 1999 general election the DP became the official opposition when it won 9.6 per cent of the vote and 44 seats.

In 2000 the DP merged with the NNP to form the DA, led by Tony Leon with Marthinus van Schalkwyk of the NNP as deputy. The DA was later joined by the much smaller Federal Alliance. However, in November 2001 the NNP came to a coalition agreement with the ANC and left the DA. In the 2004 general election the DA won 12.4 per cent of the vote and 50 seats. Following inconclusive local elections in March 2006, when no single party secured a majority in the city government of Cape Town, Helen Zille of the DA won the subsequent election as mayor, making Cape Town the only major city in South Africa not to be run by the ANC. Zille subsequently succeeded Leon as leader of the DA in May 2007. The DA remains the country’s second largest political party and the official opposition to the ANC.