DA Tshwane mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink says the party’s internal polling is “substantially” corroborating the latest Social Research Foundation (SRF) survey published by The Common Sense, which puts the DA within striking distance of an outright majority in the capital.
Brink made the disclosure on Tuesday as the DA unveiled its Tshwane council list, with party leader Geordin Hill-Lewis joining senior party figures at the launch as the party formally kicked off its local government election campaign.
The SRF poll conducted put the DA on 43% in Tshwane. No other party registered support above the poll’s 4.4% margin of error.
Asked whether the DA’s own polling is showing a similar picture, Brink said the results are encouraging but cautioned against treating surveys as an election result. “Our polling substantially correlates with the SRF,” he said. “It has for a while.”
Brink declined to disclose the DA’s precise internal numbers, saying the party conducted polling regularly and that figures could fluctuate. “The one consistency is we have polled as the biggest party in Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni for a long time,” he said.
The comments are significant because the SRF survey suggested the DA could be within touching distance of taking control of Tshwane, although the poll warned that the party could still require support from smaller parties to form a government.
I would find it incredibly difficult to sit with the ANC in a coalition while we are trying to dismantle the very patronage network that they established when they had a majority in Tshwane
— Cilliers Brink, DA Tshwane mayoral candidate
Brink said the party is nevertheless focused on winning an outright majority rather than planning its coalition arrangements before voters had spoken.
“The polling looks very good for us, but it shows that there’s potential,” he said. “It’s not in the bag to now say that we are going to pick coalition partners. We are still in an election trying to persuade South Africans that our offer is credible, that it’s the best for them.”
He said coalition negotiations should only begin after the election, once parties have received a mandate from voters.
Brink was particularly dismissive of the prospect of a DA-ANC coalition in Tshwane, arguing that the two parties would struggle to reconcile fundamentally different approaches to municipal governance. He accused the ANC of having established a patronage network in the capital that, he said, had survived years of coalition government.
“I would find it incredibly difficult to sit with the ANC in a coalition while we are trying to dismantle the very patronage network that they established when they had a majority in Tshwane,” he said.
Brink also attacked the current ANC, EFF and ActionSA-led administration, saying it had been built around political benefits rather than service delivery. “The coalition that governs Tshwane was never built to work. It was built to give politicians certain benefits and to maintain a patronage system, which we were busy dismantling,” he said.
He cited R777m spent on water tankers in 2025 as evidence of what he described as the failures of the current administration, calling it the biggest single expenditure item in the city’s water budget. He also pointed to the incomplete Hammanskraal water project and allegations surrounding municipal contracts.
Brink said the coalition is now “falling apart” as parties turn on each other ahead of the election. “They are fighting amongst each other, not just over attention; they are fighting over resources,” he said.
We don’t want the issue of how many positions. We want the issue of are we able to then come up with a programme of action?
— Solly Msimanga, DA federal chair
The DA’s strategy is to present itself as an alternative to the instability that had characterised coalition government in Tshwane, he said. “Tshwane will have either a DA-led coalition or an ANC-led coalition after November 4. We want to end the coalition chaos.”
Despite his criticism of the ANC locally, Brink stopped short of ruling out every possible coalition arrangement. He said the DA would not comment on potential partners before voters had determined the size of its mandate.
The party’s federal chair, Solly Msimanga, who will lead the DA’s coalition working group, also stressed that coalition negotiations should be based on policy rather than positions. “There is not going to be a party that is off the cards,” Msimanga said.
But he said parties would have to agree to the rule of law and a programme of action aimed at improving people’s lives. “We don’t want the issue of how many positions. We want the issue of are we able to then come up with a programme of action?” he said.
Msimanga said the DA’s candidate-selection process was another point of difference between the party and its rivals. The party has deliberately recruited community leaders in wards where it does not traditionally have a strong presence, particularly in townships and inner-city areas, Brink said.
The candidates were subjected to interviews and scrutiny of their values and community involvement before being selected. Msimanga said the process demonstrates the DA’s administrative capability and contrasted it with what he described as factional battles within the ANC.
Brink said the DA is particularly targeting ANC-held wards in Tshwane and wants to replicate its recent breakthrough in Evaton West, Emfuleni, where the party narrowly defeated the ANC in a by-election in May. But he insisted the party is taking nothing for granted.
“We don’t confuse opinion polls for the election result,” he said. “How these things work is you first get a mandate from the voters and then you commence coalition negotiations.”
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