Democratic Alliance (South Africa)

Democratic Alliance Afrikaans: Demokratiese Alliansie
Abbreviation	DA
Federal Leader	John Steenhuisen
Federal Chairperson	Ivan Meyer
Deputy Federal Chairpersons	JP Smith Solly Malatsi Anton Bredell
Federal Council Chairperson	Helen Zille[1]
Deputy Federal Council Chairpersons	Ashor Sarupen Annelie Lotriet Thomas Walters
Founded	24 June 2000; 24 years ago (2000-06-24)
Preceded by	Democratic Party New National Party Federal Alliance
Student wing	Democratic Alliance Students Organisation[2]
Youth wing	DA Youth[3]
Women's wing	DA Women’s Network[4]
Overseas wing	DA Abroad[5]
Ideology	Liberalism (South African) Federalism Non-racialism[6] Anti-corruption[7]
Political position	Centre[A]
International affiliation	Liberal International
Continental affiliation	Africa Liberal Network
Colours	Blue
Slogan	Freedom, Fairness, Opportunity and Diversity
National Assembly	87 / 400
NCOP	21 / 90
Pan African Parliament	1 / 5
SADC Parliamentary Forum	1 / 6
Provincial Legislatures	89 / 487
Cape Town City Council	135 / 231
Website
da.org.za
Politics of South Africa Political parties Elections ^ A: It is attributed to both centrist and centre-right policies and is often described with either label.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is a liberal South African political party. The party has been the second-largest in South Africa since its foundation in 2000. The party is broadly centrist,^[8][9] and has also been attributed to centre-right^[10][11][12] policies.

It is 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^[13] tendencies, including neoliberalism,^[14] social liberalism,^[15] classical liberalism,^[15] and conservative liberalism.^[16][17] The party draws its support predominantly from Afrikaans and English speakers, people aged over 35, and white South Africans, as well as the Indian and Coloured communities.^[18][19]

The current leader of the party is John Steenhuisen, who was announced as the new leader on 1 November 2020 after the party's Federal Congress. He had previously acted as the interim leader of the party from November 2019 to November 2020.^[20] Helen Zille is chairperson of both the Federal Council and the Federal Executive, the highest decision-making structures of the party.^[21]

In 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 between ten parties with jointly 287 seats in the National Assembly of South Africa (72%).^[22][23] The DA also governs several major metropolitan municipalities and has governed the Western Cape, one of South Africa's nine provinces, since the 2009 general election.