DA’s Credibility Crisis: Power Games Disguised as Principles

The DA has built its political brand on the claim that it stands for clean, principled and superior governance — especially when contrasting itself with Gauteng. Yet recent events expose that this posture collapses the moment power is at stake.

The same party that vowed publicly that it would never work with the EFF is now willingly exploring that very partnership, not to improve policy outcomes, but to assemble the numbers needed to topple a sitting provincial government. This is not principle — it is political arithmetic dressed as morality. A “never” that becomes “maybe” when power is available is not leadership, it is opportunism.

Meanwhile, Gauteng under Premier Panyaza Lesufi has demonstrated a willingness to confront corruption head-on, act on forensic investigations, and push visible programmes to improve safety and service delivery in communities that were historically ignored. That record — not perfection, but active governance — is what the DA seeks to interrupt by engineering coalitions through the back door.

At the same time, the DA continues to criticise Gauteng while ignoring the uncomfortable truth inside its own flagship province. In Western Cape townships, residents still walk through sewage and collapsing infrastructure — the exact type of failure the DA uses to condemn other provinces. If Gauteng had sewage running through streets, the DA would call it proof of unfitness to govern. When it happens under their watch, it becomes a “complex municipal issue.”

You cannot present yourself as the moral alternative while acting like every other power-seeking formation. The DA’s attack on Gauteng governance collapses under its own contradictions.

By: Editorial team, Africa News Alliance