DA leader John Steenhuisen wants his party to look into losses in by-elections held in the Western Cape after the Patriotic Alliance (PA) snatched two wards in the latest by-election on Wednesday.

Steenhuisen said he was worried about the surge of the PA, which keeps snatching their wards when it was not the case in other provinces.

“It’s something I’m deeply concerned about, and it’s something which we have to interrogate as a party. We have to ask why in a province where we govern and in municipalities we govern, people are voting for other parties,” he said.

He made the comment when he had an engagement with the parliamentary journalists’ Press Gallery Association in Cape Town on Thursday.

This happened a day after the DA lost two wards during the by-elections in George on Wednesday.

Steenhuisen noted that the DA has been able to see off the PA in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng.

In a rhetorical question, he asked what was unique to the Western Cape that was holding his party back from being able to hold up the tide in the province.

“It is linked largely to more rural parts of the Western Cape, the east and west regions. The PA has not been able to crack the metro yet, so I think it is a phenomenon,” he said when he answered himself.

Steenhuisen also said there were municipalities where they govern in the province’s east and west regions that are at risk.

“We’d better get to the bottom of this as a party. I’ll be asking the FedEx (Federal Executive) to have a session to interrogate why it is that in this province of the Western Cape, we’re not able to stem the tide when we’re doing it in the Eastern Cape, in Gauteng, and other provinces.”

Despite the PA snatching their two wards in the Western Cape, Steenhuisen remained optimistic about the party’s prospects in the future.

“Remember, by-elections are never really a true barometer because often if a local dynamic is playing out, you also have parties able to focus all of their resources in one direction that they’re not necessarily going to be able to replicate on a national election footing.”

However, an optimistic Steenhuisen said the DA was a party that had done the best in the last by-elections across the country.

“I looked at the last set of statistics out there. We are the party that’s done the best in by-elections across the country. It was that analysis that came out last year that we are the party that’s grown the most in by-elections, and I’m very pleased with that,” he said.

“Obviously, the Western Cape by-elections are a concern, and I would be failing in my leadership responsibility if we didn’t start to interrogate why it is that voters in the east and west regions of this province are turning to parties like the Patriotic Alliance,” said the Minister of Agriculture.

Steenhuisen added that they will focus on making sure that they prevail going forward.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

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