Western Cape Premier-designate, Alan Winde, has thanked supporters for giving the Democratic Alliance (DA) another chance to govern the province. The party scooped 55% of the votes in the provincial election.

Winde received a warm welcome and the DA a thumbs-up for retaining the Western Cape. The DA will run the province for a third term. Job creation and making communities safer are top priorities.

The party will now put together a provincial cabinet to implement its election manifesto.

Winde says they will address issues that were raised during their election campaign.

“All of us that will be in that cabinet would have criss-crossed this province, and we would have seen things that say ‘hang on, we need to do it in a different way because it’s not making a difference or up until now it’s not going fast enough. Sufficient classrooms, or housing opportunities; all of these things we picked up on the campaign, they will go into that bosberaad and that will set the scene. The programmes; align the budgets and then say this is where we are going to in the next five years.”

The DA dropped by 4% in the province, but says it won’t resort to populist rhetoric to win support. The party says land and race had been used during the elections to polarise society.

Western Cape DA leader, Bonginkosi Madikizela, says they are operating in a racial nationalism and racial polarism environment.

“We are operating in an environment where racial nationalism and racial polarisation is on the rise. We must make sure that we do not fall for that because we want to grow quicker, because as I said, it’s not sustainable. So I’m happy that we are the only party in SA that’s holding the centre and that is preaching the message of unity.”

Supporters say they trust the party to make good on its promises.

“We are hoping that Alan is going to continue where Helen (Zille) has left, the good governance that the DA has pride itself on in the past 10 years. The people of Khayelisha are waiting for jobs, that Alan in his post as a minister, he did a good job there now that he has all the powers as the premier he will do a great job for more people in the Western Cape.”

DA national head, Mmusi Maimane, also congratulated Winde, but would not answer questions about his own future as party leader.