South Africa’s second-largest political party faces some internal pressure to quit the ruling coalition, but doing so would damage its growth prospects and be a “big mistake,” its outgoing leader said.

The business-friendly Democratic Alliance (DA) and eight smaller rivals joined the African National Congress-led government after 2024 elections failed to produce an outright winner for the first time since apartheid ended three decades earlier. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new administration has made headway in addressing pressing infrastructure challenges and rebuilding investor confidence, helping fuel a rally in the nation’s assets, but the two main parties have sparred repeatedly over policy and appointments.

A bloc of conservative DA members who back the kind of policies favoured by US President Donald Trump want it to return to the opposition benches, yet doing so would diminish its appeal among a primarily Black electorate, said John Steenhuisen, who will step down as party leader in April after almost seven years at the helm.

“The biggest switch off for them would be to see a party that panders to a right-wing element that is more interested in what Donald Trump’s doing than what we are actually doing here in South Africa to build a better country,” he said in an interview in Cape Town. Being in the government has enabled the DA to adjust its branding and attract more Black voters, who now view the party differently because it has demonstrated its ability to deliver better services, he said.

The DA won 22% of the vote in the last national elections in 2024, and its internal polling shows it now has about 30% support. Its next major test will come in municipal elections, which must be held within the next 12 months.

The party is facing a major challenge in its stronghold of Cape Town and the surrounding Western Cape province from the Patriotic Alliance, a party that has attracted a strong following among people of mixed race.

“I‘m very worried about the growth of the PA particularly, particularly in the Western Cape,” Steenhuisen said. “I think that the DA needs to look very carefully at the strategy and understand why the PA is making inroads and then mitigate against that.”

Steenhuisen, 49, who serves as agriculture minister, said earlier this month that he won’t seek re-election at the DA’s conference in April, even though he was widely expected to secure another term. He intends to remain in the cabinet and keep his party membership.

While nominations for his replacement will only open formally in two weeks, Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is seen as the current frontrunner.

“Certainly I think he’s got all of the attributes to be an excellent leader of the party and he’s a person of high integrity,” Steenhuisen said. “But, you know, it’s not for me to anoint a successor. I think it’s up for the party to decide.”