DA's Ivan Meyer and PA leader Gayton McKenzie launch bekgeveg

DEMOCRATIC Alliance (DA) Federal Chairperson Dr Ivan Meyer has hit back in a bekgeveg with Patriotic Alliance (PA) President Gayton McKenzie, who claimed that the “DA is in ICU” in the Western Cape.

Hot on the heels of winning two by-elections in the George Local Municipality on the Garden Route, McKenzie gushed about his party’s performance to Newsday at the sidelines of the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

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.”

On Sunday, the PA’s spokesperson, Steve Motale, clarified McKenzie’s statement, explaining: “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.”

But Meyer pointed out President Cyril Ramaphosa’s September 2025 admission that DA-led municipalities often outperform those run by the ANC and independent reports showing DA regions are governed well. 

He 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.

“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.”