Patriotic Alliance | |
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Abbreviation | PA |
President | Gayton McKenzie |
Chairperson | Marlon Daniels |
Secretary-General | Chinelle Stevens |
Deputy President | Kenny Kunene |
Founded | 15 November 2013 |
Ideology | |
Political position | Right-wing[11] to far-right[15] |
Colours | Green |
Slogan | Ons Baiza Nie / The Last Hope |
National Assembly seats | 9 / 400 |
Website | |
www | |
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) is a right-wing political party in South Africa, formed in November 2013 by, among others, businessmen Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene.[16][17][18][19] Since 2024, it is a part of the current South African government of national unity together with the African National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance and other parties.
The party at its launch stated that it intended to contest the 2014 national and provincial elections in South Africa, with a particular focus on the Western Cape province, although it would also attempt to have a particular presence in the Free State, Gauteng, Northern Cape and North West. On March 12, 2013 the party paid deposit fees to the Independent Electoral Commission to contest nationally and in four provinces on May 7, 2014.[20] The party has described itself as a credible alternative to both the Democratic Alliance (DA), which is the ruling party in the Western Cape, and the African National Congress, which governs the rest of the country.[21][22] These parties have each, in turn, dismissed the PA as a credible threat and have said that in their view the party would disappear from the political landscape and not make a "significant contribution to the political discourse", which had proven to be the case with "smaller parties" in South Africa's past.[23]
The party failed to win any seats in its first national and provincial elections in 2014, garnering just 0.07% of the national vote, with its best showing 0.4% in the Western Cape. The party had hoped to force a coalition in the Western Cape,[24] but the DA's share of the vote in fact grew after the election.[25]
The PA gained its first elected representatives in the 2016 municipal elections. Although the party only received 0.06% of the national vote, it picked up seats in the metropolitan municipalities of Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, aided in part by the low threshold for representation in these councils. It also picked up a seat in Tokologo Local Municipality with a strong 10% of the vote.
The party made a breakthrough in the 2021 municipal elections, with big gains in the Western Cape and some wards in Gauteng. It currently has 85 Council seats throughout the country.
PA won nine seats in the Parliament (National Assembly) with 2.06% of the vote in the 2024 general election.[26]
In June 2024, Patriotic Alliance agreed to join the ANC-led government of national unity (GNU).[27] The leader of the PA, Gayton McKenzie, became minister of sports, arts and culture in the new Cabinet.[28]