(AFP) — South Africa’s second-largest party, the Democratic Alliance, elected Cape Town’s mayor Sunday to lead it into the 2029 national polls, stepping up its drive to take votes away from the faltering ANC.
The election of Geordin Hill-Lewis, 39, marks a reset for the centre-right DA that entered a multi-party coalition government in 2024 when the African National Congress (ANC) lost its majority.
“I am not satisfied being a junior partner in a coalition government,” Hill-Lewis said after his widely expected victory was announced.
“Our ambition must be to lead the national government. That is the next chapter that all of us must write together.”
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The liberal DA holds six cabinet positions, compared to 20 for the ANC, in a tense unity government that has been credited with restoring some confidence in South Africa after years of crippling corruption and mismanagement.
It also runs the Western Cape
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