The political landscape of the Western Cape is currently being reshaped by a fierce verbal war, locally known as a ‘bekgeveg’, between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the rapidly ascending Patriotic Alliance (PA). At the heart of this confrontation is a series of bruising by-election defeats in the Garden Route that have left the DA’s federal leadership scrambling for answers and its rivals scenting blood in the water. This is not merely a clash of personalities; it is a fundamental struggle for the soul of the province’s electorate.
The conflict reached a boiling point following the State of the Nation Address (SONA), where Patriotic Alliance President Gayton McKenzie did not mince his words regarding the DA’s future in its traditional stronghold. Gushing over his party’s recent performances in the George Local Municipality, McKenzie delivered a scathing assessment of his opponents.
McKenzie said: “We are the fastest-growing political party in the country. Not on polling, polling is for strippers. In three weeks, we won three wards in the Western Cape. In the Western Cape, the DA’s time is over. The DA is in ICU.”
The “ICU” comment has become the focal point of the current dispute, symbolising a perceived vulnerability in a party that has governed the Western Cape with an absolute majority for over a decade. On Sunday, the PA’s spokesperson, Steve Motale, sought to clarify the President’s remarks, suggesting that the DA’s relevance is fading where it matters most—on the streets and in the homes of the working class.
“The DA is alive in polls but in ICU on the ground. DA being in ICU on the ground means its support is dwindling, making it irrelevant to voters, something that will condemn the party into extinction,” Motale explained. This rhetoric aims directly at the DA's "Blue Wall," suggesting that while the party may look healthy in academic surveys, its pulse is weakening in the communities it serves.
However, DA Federal Chairperson Dr Ivan Meyer has refused to take the criticism lying down. Fresh from the DA’s Mpumalanga Provincial Congress, Meyer launched a counter-offensive, citing high-level endorsements and official statistics to bolster the party’s reputation. Meyer, a seasoned political operator, knows that in the court of public opinion, data can be a powerful shield against populist arrows.
Meyer wysed: “I think I'm not going to listen to Gayton, but I am going to listen to the president. The president says, where the DA govern, you get the best service delivery.” He was referring to a significant admission by President Cyril Ramaphosa in September 2025 that DA-led municipalities often outperform those run by the ANC. For Meyer, the President's words carry more weight than McKenzie’s "stripper" analogies.
Meyer continued to challenge McKenzie’s narrative by pointing to independent data. “But if you don't want to believe the president, look at what Stats SA says. Talk of ICU contradicts the president, it contradicts the auditor general, but also Stats SA. So I think if I put all those independent reports next to the story of Gayton McKenzie, the overwhelming evidence suggests that he is wrong.”
Despite Meyer’s defiant stance, the reality on the ground in George tells a more complex and perhaps more troubling story for the DA. The party’s grip on the George council has been destabilised following the resignation of three of its councillors earlier this year. This internal instability provided the perfect opening for the PA’s ‘green wave’ to wash over the Garden Route.
In January 2026, the PA secured a decisive breakthrough in Wards 17 and 27. In Ward 17, PA candidate Raphael John Goeieman claimed a victory with 59.98% of the vote, a staggering increase from the 39.86% the DA achieved in the 2021 local government elections. In Ward 27, Elton Frederick Kleynhans took the seat with 51.35% of the vote. These were not narrow margins; they were clear mandates for change.
The momentum did not stop there. Just last week, on 11 February 2026, the PA struck again in Ward 16, George. This third consecutive victory in the municipality has left the DA with only 25 of the 55 council seats. This loss of an outright majority has forced the DA into a precarious position, relying heavily on coalition partners like the Freedom Front Plus and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) to maintain control of the council.
The losses have been significant enough to force DA leader John Steenhuisen to order an urgent internal review. Steenhuisen, who campaigned personally in George ahead of the votes, acknowledged that the results fell short of expectations. The "George Wipeout," as some local analysts have dubbed it, has sent a clear message to the DA's federal executive: the status quo is no longer enough.
“We have to ask why, in a province that we govern, people are voting for other parties,” Steenhuisen said. “We were able to see off the PA in the Eastern Cape and in Gauteng, including in municipalities we govern. The question is why that is not translating consistently in the Western Cape.”
Steenhuisen’s admission of vulnerability comes at a sensitive time for his leadership. With the DA’s elective conference approaching in April, he is seeking a third term while navigating allegations regarding the misuse of party credit cards — claims he has firmly denied. While he attempted to downplay the George results as being influenced by local dynamics, he conceded that certain municipalities in both the east and west of the province are now “at risk”.
The rise of the PA in rural and semi-urban municipalities appears to be driven by a message that resonates with voters who feel overlooked by the traditional political giants. McKenzie’s bold claim that “polling is for strippers” reflects a populist approach that prioritises by-election victories over statistical projections. It is a strategy that focuses on the immediate, the local, and the personal.
Investigating the factors behind this shift reveals a growing frustration in certain sectors of the Western Cape. While the DA prides itself on clean audits and efficient administration, the PA has successfully tapped into a narrative of "coloured nationalism" and community-led governance. This has allowed them to chip away at the DA's traditional support base in areas where service delivery, though technically superior to ANC-run regions, still feels inadequate to the residents on the ground.
As the 2026 local government elections approach, the DA finds itself in an uncharacteristic position of defensive introspection. Meyer maintains that the party is “alive and well” and promises to demonstrate this strength in the upcoming elections. Yet, the persistent growth of the Patriotic Alliance suggests that the battle for the Western Cape is no longer a foregone conclusion.
For now, the ‘bekgeveg’ continues. Meyer remains steadfast in his reliance on audit reports and presidential praise for service delivery, while McKenzie and the PA continue to celebrate their growing footprint in the DA’s heartland. Whether the DA is truly in “ICU” or merely facing a temporary fever remains to be seen, but the political temperature in the Western Cape has certainly reached a record high. The upcoming months will determine if the DA can fortify its walls or if the green wave will continue to erode the foundations of its provincial power.
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