Maimane scoffs at DA’s growth claim

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Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane has scoffed at claims the DA has performed well after Wednesday’s elections.

Maimane says the official opposition has simply gained back the voters it lost in 2019.

The performance of the DA during the 2019 polls led to Maimane’s departure from the party.

In that election, the party gained 3.6 million votes translating to 20.77%.

However, after Wednesday’s polls, the DA is currently at 3.3 million, translating to 21.67%.

Maimane spoke to the SABC at the National Results Operations Centre.

“What happened to the DA’s marginal growth as they describe it is a return of Freedom Front Plus voters. We got 3.6 million votes in 20219. They got 3.3 million. Surely, surely if you were the official opposition position at a time when the governing party lost over 14 points at the polls, you can’t even gain 1% of those 14, you can’t grow beyond that 1% and then you want to browbeat and say you’ve done extraordinarily well. I think it’s disingenuous at best,” he said.

Meanwhile, Maimane says the the conclusion of vote counting and declaration of the final results should come to an end, in order for service delivery work to commence.