DA seeks to push regalia

THE DA may have increased its support base in KwaZuluNatal’s urban areas, but its provincial leader, Zwakele Mncwango, has admitted that the party still faces challenges in penetrating rural areas.

The party obtained no seats in five municipalities and one seat in 12 others. Mncwango said as part of making his party recognised in rural areas he had instructed party leaders to encourage members to make the wearing of blue party regalia a trend. He said this would work for his party as it was working for the ANC, which had great popularity in the rural areas.

The DA got no seat in Msinga, Ulundi, Nkandla, Mthonjaneni and Maphumulo municipalities. But it got 61 seats in eThekwini, where it had 43 after the 2011 elections. It also had strong performances in municipalities such as Umdoni, Ray Nkonyeni (Hibiscus, in Port Shepstone), Msunduzi and KwaDubuza, where it got between 10 and 15 seats.

Mncwango admitted that his party’s campaign in a number of municipalities had failed to produce results.

“I cannot say we were rejected, but we failed to do the work. I now have to focus on establishing why we did not perform.

“If we have deployed people, we have to sit down and understand the challenges because our dream was to have councillors in every municipality.” Mncwango said the DA campaign would not stop after the local government elections as its mission was to drop ANC votes below 50% in the 2019 general election.

He told leaders of the party yesterday that for the DA to penetrate voters’ minds its attire “should be an everyday swag”.

“I told them that we have been having these blue waves in many areas, and this should not end with the local government elections.”Mncwango said it was not all doom and gloom in rural areas as the DA had gained seats in some of the municipalities where it had had none before.

The party now had five seats in Nongoma, where it previously had had none, and improved from one seat to five in Phongola.