The DA managed to claw back white Afrikaans voters, most of whom have voted for the FF Plus. (Jaco Marais/Netwerk24)

• Following Wednesday’s general elections, several shifts were observed among voters in the Western Cape.
• The DA managed to claw back white Afrikaans voters who had mostly voted for the FF Plus.
• In contrast, the Patriotic Alliance took coloured voters away from the DA.
• Track the latest results via our Elections Map.

The DA’s doomsday coalition talks turned white Afrikaans voters against the FF Plus, while the Patriotic Alliance’s charm offensive chipped away at both the ANC and DA’s support in the Western Cape.

The FF Plus conceded it lost its traditional support to the DA.

However, the DA was hesitant to admit a large group of coloured voters had defected to the PA.

With 91% of votes tallied by Friday evening, it was clear the PA was the biggest threat to the DA’s support, with 9% of the votes in the bag.

It has taken the PA at least 10 years to reach the electoral support it achieved in the Western Cape in stark contrast to the MK Party, which has obliterated the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal and other parts of the country, just over six months since it was launched.

READ | DA heading for Western Cape victory, potentially with reduced majority as PA eats into support base

PA provincial secretary Candice Geswind told News24 the party had always been seen as the new kid on the block.

“Now, people actually realise what we are capable of, what our leadership is capable of, and that it’s not only talk, but action,” she said.

“If you look at what we’ve done with local government, the municipalities where we have governed, it’s evident that we put our money where our mouths are. People are also just plain tired of what is happening in the country.”

Geswind added that the PA was taking a cautious approach to its growth.

She said:

Despite being a decade old, the PA remained on the margins of South African politics until the 2021 local government elections.

Even then, its support nationally was below 1%.

Its strongest showing was in the Western Cape in that election, obtaining 2.36% of the vote.

In the previous national and provincial elections in 2019, the PA received only 652 votes in the Western Cape – just 0.03%.

More recently, in Oudtshoorn, the PA secured a ward by 1 279 votes (65.4%). A tally of 853 votes (40.18%) clinched the other ward in the Swartland Municipality.

Erika Rossouw-Botha from the FF Plus told News24 several factors had led to the party losing coloured and white supporters.

“I think the coalition hype that went out first, definitely scared people. It caused us to lose votes. There were several other challenges also, but mostly with so many political parties contesting the elections,” she said.

“If you look at the coloured vote, that was dominated by the PA and the Cape Coloured Congress, they played a major role in the Western Cape.”

Political analyst Daniel Silke added that the PA would be something of a headache for the DA.

“I think the DA will be breathing a substantial sigh of relief that the PA vote didn’t cut into their 55% majority,” he said.

“For some, support was crowded out by the plethora of political choices that were available and, for that matter, the Patriotic Alliance as well on the white vote in the Western Cape, which you’ve seen not just here, but in other parts of the country.

“The DA also was successful in its messaging that a vote for smaller parties like the Freedom Front Plus would be some sort of wasted vote, and it would be better for those voters to vote for a larger party.”

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Silke said that white voters had returned to the DA, adding:

He said the DA had not been able to grow its footprint in South Africa, but it had been able to hang on to power in the Western Cape.

“This is an important and key aspect of the broader DA in a prized province like the Western Cape.”

DA provincial leader Tertuis Simmers said the province, metro and non-metro areas had seen an increase in overall support.

“We will now need to analyse the demographic representation. Obviously, if you observe some of the opposition parties and their performance, it is quite clear that, for instance, the Patriotic Alliance they’ve actually taken votes off the ANC and to a large extent, and also the GOOD Party,” he said.

Simmers added that the DA had run a vigorous registration campaign.

“We out-registered any other party in the Western Cape by far. I believe, you know, we are seeing a high conversion of those that we’ve registered in terms of new voters who ultimately came out to vote, the bulk of them being young people,” he said.

The DA’s support has fluctuated between 55% and 52%.