By midday on Thursday DA leader Helen Zille was happy that her party was on track to make their target of 15% of the national vote, she told the Mail & Guardian Online.
“I think we are doing good, we’re still concerned that the ANC might still get a two-thirds majority, but we are confident we will meet our target of 15%.”
Earlier she displayed a different sentiment — one of disappointment — at the party’s initial results that she saw when she arrived at the IEC results centre in Pretoria.
Zille said that they are “not very happy” about the national results, as they hoped to do better.
“We were hoping for 15% in this year’s election which would be a 30% increase from last election,” she said.
The party was anticipating a slight drop in their support as reflected in the results, but the end result would still be higher than their projections.
When we however published these comments, Zille vehemently denied saying it and insisted that she was very happy with the performance of the party.
She was also confident that the party would rule the Western Cape.
“We ran a very targeted campaign and the voters are saying they understand democracy.”
Even ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe noticed Zille’s strong lead in the Western. With a big hug and a warm smile, he tried to offer her a deal: Let’s rule the Western Cape together.
Her answer was a sweet “thanks, but no thanks”.