Project CBNews

13/04/2026

🔵 BREAKING | DA FEDERAL CONGRESS 2026
The Democratic Alliance walked out of Midrand this afternoon with an entirely new leadership team ,and a party that looks nothing like it did 48 hours ago.

Geordin Hill-Lewis is the new Federal Leader. Solly Msimanga is the new Federal Chairperson. Siviwe Gwarube, Cilliers Brink, and Solly Malatsi are the new Deputy Chairpersons.

Two giants left the stage before the votes were even cast. Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen both quoted the same 1959 line from founding leader Dr Jannie Steytler in their farewell addresses: "One day South Africa will be governed by our principles because it is the only way it can be governed." That wasn't coincidence. That was a deliberate passing of a flame.

Hill-Lewis accepted the mandate without fanfare. He said the DA has proven it can oppose. It has proven it can govern. Now it must prove it can win and become the largest party in South Africa by 2029.

The road from Midrand runs straight into the 2026 local government elections. Joburg. Tshwane. Ekurhuleni. Durban. He named them all.

The blue machine has new drivers. South Africa is watching.
📰 Full report including analysis of the farewell speeches, the acceptance speech breakdown, and what comes next for the GNU on the link below.

Project CBNews | Midrand | 12 April 2026
projectcb.online

12/04/2026

IT'S OFFICIAL: DA ELECTS NEW LEADERSHIP AT HISTORIC MIDRAND CONGRESS
Project CBNews | Breaking | April 12, 2026

The Democratic Alliance has a new Federal Leader. Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis walked out of the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand today as the head of South Africa's second-largest political party, the newest leader of a DA that analysts describe as emerging from this congress with a more diverse and significantly younger leadership cohort, most in their mid-thirties to early forties.

It was never really a contest on paper. Hill-Lewis told the more than 2,100 delegates that the DA is not a party built around a single personality, and that in casting their vote they were not being asked to unite behind a person, but behind a mission, to grow the DA into the country's biggest party by 2029. His challenger, Sedibeng caucus leader Sibusiso Dyonase, made his presence felt. Dyonase told delegates the election was not a popularity contest, a pointed remark, given that he entered the race just two days before nominations closed, with no national profile and no campaign war chest. He ran on conscience, and the party gave him a fair platform. That matters in its own right.

Hill-Lewis has confirmed he will remain in his role as Mayor of Cape Town rather than taking up a position in the National Assembly, a deliberate move. Staying outside cabinet gives him room to hold the GNU to account without being bound by collective responsibility. It's a smart play. He wants the governing credibility without the silence it demands.

The chairperson race was the other major contest of the weekend. Solly Msimanga, the DA's Gauteng leader and former Tshwane mayor, went head-to-head against incumbent Ivan Meyer, and walked away victorious. Congratulations to the newly elected Federal Chairperson, Solly Msimanga. His pitch was explicitly about rebuilding the party's collapsed structures in Gauteng, the province where the DA lost critical black leadership figures between 2019 and 2023 and has been fighting to recover ground ever since. Meyer had the advantage of incumbency. Msimanga had the energy of a man who believed his moment had finally arrived. The delegates agreed.

For the three deputy chairperson positions, seven candidates contested three spots, and the results reflect the generational wave this congress was always building toward. Congratulations to Siviwe Gwarube, Cilliers Brink, and Solly Malatsi, the newly elected Deputy Federal Chairpersons. Gwarube, the Basic Education Minister, ran on a simple but urgent argument: only a growing DA can deliver a growing South Africa. Brink, former mayor of Tshwane, made unity his rallying call. Malatsi, seeking re-election, said the work isn't done, and delegates gave him the mandate to see it through.

What is beyond dispute is what this congress represented as a whole. With over 2,000 delegates at the Gallagher Convention Centre, this was the largest Federal Congress in the DA's history. And it unfolded without the drama of bribery, coercion, or factionalist chaos that characterises so many political gatherings in this country. Delegates voted electronically, in private cubicles, in a process the party described as verifiable and dispute-proof.

Hill-Lewis and his newly elected co-leaders face a mammoth dual task, showing how differently they can grow the party from the previous generation of leaders, while juggling the reality of being simultaneously a GNU insider and a credible opposition voice. That tension is not going away. The ANC is watching. So is ActionSA. So is every community that still wants service delivery and not just speeches.

South Africa has a new DA. The blue machine has new drivers. The road from here runs straight into the 2026 local government elections, and what happens on that road will tell us everything about whether this generational handover was a genuine reset or just a change of faces.

Project CBNews | Midrand | April 12, 2026
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11/04/2026

TWO FAREWELLS, ONE QUESTION: WHAT COMES NEXT FOR THE DA?

*Project CBNews | DA Federal Congress 2026 | Midrand*

Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen both walked off the same stage today and neither of them looked like they were losing.

That's the thing about the Democratic Alliance that its critics have never quite figured out. It doesn't collapse when its big names leave. It reorganises. It recalibrates. And today, at the largest Federal Congress in the party's history, it did exactly that with 2,000 delegates watching, and a country paying closer attention than usual.

Zille went first. And if you expected a sentimental goodbye, you didn't get one. She opened with the party's founding in 1959 — not 2000, not 2023 — 1959, when a handful of South Africans broke from the United Party and stood alone in Parliament against apartheid. She reminded delegates that liberal democracy has never had easy soil in this country. And she said something that deserves more attention than it will probably get: that historically, liberalism thrives in homogenous societies, and begins to crack the moment those societies diversify. The DA, she argued, is the rare experiment that proved the opposite. A liberal movement that grew in arguably the most complex, divided, historically fractured society on earth.

She didn't dress it up. She called the global retreat from liberal values exactly what it is alarming. And she said the DA has remained "unbent and unbowed" while much of the world capitulated to identity politics, ethno-populism, and the weaponisation of diversity.

Bold claim. But not an empty one.

Then Steenhuisen took the floor. He came in with receipts.

He inherited a party polling at 16 percent in 2019. Divided. Written off by the media. He leaves it polling close to 30 percent, sitting inside the Government of National Unity, and managing portfolios that touch millions of South African lives daily Agriculture, Home Affairs, Basic Education, Public Works, Communications. He went through every one of them. The removal from the FATF grey list. The first credit rating upgrade in 20 years. The blocking of the VAT increase. The court challenge to the Expropriation Act which, he noted with some satisfaction, has led the President himself to concede in court papers that the Act is unconstitutional.

He called it the Moonshot mission. And by any honest measure, they pulled it off.

But what struck this reporter sitting with both speeches side by side is what both leaders chose to end on. Not policy. Not polling numbers. Not the local government elections coming later this year. Both of them quoted the same man: Dr Jannie Steytler, the DA's founding leader, who said in 1959: *"One day South Africa will be governed by our principles, because it is the only way it can be governed."*

That's not coincidence. That's a deliberate handover of a flame.

The question Project CBNews is watching because it's the question nobody in that room quite answered today is whether the next leader can carry it somewhere new. Geordin Hill-Lewis is almost certainly walking out of that congress with the federal leadership. He is capable, his Cape Town track record is real, and the party machine is behind him. But Steenhuisen's own speech named the threat clearly: the Doomsday Coalition has taken Gauteng. Ethnic nationalism is growing. The populist tide is rising domestically just as the DA reaches its highest point of national influence.

The DA has proven it can govern. The harder test — the one Steytler probably didn't anticipate in 1959 — is whether it can grow in a country where racial identity remains the most powerful political currency there is.

Two extraordinary leaders left that stage today with their heads high. The baton is in new hands now.

South Africa will be watching what they do with it.

Project CBNews | Reporting from Midrand | DA Federal Congress, April 11, 2026

11/04/2026

Midrand Gallagher the congress kicked off today.

**THE SETUP**

This is the DA's largest-ever Federal Congress, over 2,000 delegates at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, running April 11–12. Three positions are being filled: Federal Leader, Federal Chairperson, and three Deputy Federal Chairpersons.

**WHY IT'S A BIG DEAL — MORE THAN JUST A LEADERSHIP VOTE**

Both John Steenhuisen and Helen Zille are out. Steenhuisen announced in February he won't seek re-election. Zille declined to run for another term as Federal Council Chair.

That's the two most dominant figures in the party stepping aside simultaneously. The federal finance chair position is also vacant after Dion George resigned in January following a messy public fallout with Steenhuisen. So this isn't a routine congress, it's a near-complete leadership reset.

**THE MAIN FIGHT: FEDERAL LEADER**

Two candidates. It's not a real contest on paper, but it's interesting.

**Geordin Hill-Lewis**
Cape Town Mayor, clear frontrunner. Bloomberg called him a shoo-in. He's been eyeing this for years but publicly vowed never to challenge Steenhuisen. The moment Steenhuisen stepped aside, Hill-Lewis moved immediately.

**Sibusiso Dyonase**
He entered the race just two days before the deadline, with no national profile and limited campaign resources. He's the DA's caucus leader in Sedibeng. He organised Zoom meetings with constituencies across provinces because he couldn't afford to travel. His candidacy is rooted in personal conviction, his mother spent years on a housing waiting list and died without receiving a home.

He's not there to win. He's there to make a point, that the DA needs a voice from the ground, not just from a well-resourced mayoral office in Cape Town.

**THE CHAIRPERSON RACE**

Ivan Meyer, Solly Msimanga, and Ashor Sarupen are contesting the Federal Chairperson position. Msimanga is a significant name former Tshwane mayor, well-known nationally.

**THE GENERATIONAL SHIFT STORY**

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube accepted a nomination for Deputy Federal Chairperson. Solly Malatsi is seeking re-election to the same role.

Analysts note that Zille's exit could accelerate a generational shift and open space for a different leadership style but also removes her organisational experience and mobilising capacity.

**THE REAL STAKES**

Analysts say the bigger question is the development and retention of credible black leadership within the DA, which is central to national growth. Hill-Lewis is a capable administrator Cape Town's record speaks but he leads a party that still struggles with its racial optics nationally. The 2026 local government elections are coming. Whoever wins today needs to hit the ground running immediately.

**BOTTOM LINE**

Hill-Lewis almost certainly wins today. The real story isn't who wins, it's whether the DA can translate a clean organisational reset into actual electoral growth beyond its traditional Western Cape base. That's the question no congress vote can answer.

27/02/2026

🙏 Sharpeville, this Saturday is for you.
Our community has carried so much in such a short space of time. Nation Peace Tranquility is opening its doors this Saturday for a day of healing, hope, and coming together and we want every single one of you there.
This event was born from real pain. Our founder Masechaba Matsela lost her brother-in-law, walked through her darkest season, and built something beautiful on the other side. The Charity Family Trust exists because she refused to let grief have the last word.
This Saturday, that love becomes action as we raise funds for 14 families who have lost everything, including the family of the driver.
On the day:
🎙️ Healing speakers
🚗 Road safety awareness
🧠 Mental health education without judgement
🩸 Blood donation information
📖 Word of the Day from Pastor Vilakazi
🛍️ Food stalls & fundraising
📸 Get a printed photo taken only R20! (Photos@Carlett Studio on site)
Come as you are. Come broken. Come hopeful. Come ready to breathe again.
📍 Sharpeville Exhibition Centre
📅 Saturday, 28 February 2026
🕗 08:00 – 14:00 | Free Entry
🎙️ Listen live on JustGospel Radio → www.justgospelrtv.co.za

Read the article here:
https://projectcb.online/httpsprojectcb-onlinesharpeville-community-healing-day-28-february-2026/

Please share this post. The person who needs this day most might be waiting for someone to send it to them. 💛

21/02/2026

❤️ THIS Valentine's Day, love looked different.

At Matwala Children's Home in Vanderbijlpark, we spent the day with children who came into this world under the most heartbreaking of circumstances, some brought by the South African Police for their own safety, one just a single day old.

Mamma Elizabeth has dedicated her life to raising these children as her own, giving them a solid Christian foundation, a family, and a future. When they turn 18, many of them choose to stay, because Matwala is the only home they have ever known.

But she cannot do it alone. The government is not helping. It is churches and communities like ours that keep these children fed, clothed, and loved.

We shared a Valentine's lunch, took photographs, and left changed people.

Read the full story and find out how YOU can help. 👇
https://projectcb.online/love-in-action-valentines-day-at-matwala-childrens-home-shines-light-on-south-africas-forgotten-children/

09/02/2026

For too long Africans have been working in silos, it is time to stop undercutting one another and work together. The collaboration message is a very strong thread today.

19/01/2026

https://projectcb.online/tragedy-strikes-as-13-learners-lose-their-lives/

Thirteen young lives lost in a Vanderbijlpark transport tragedy. Behind the statistics are shattered families. A call for safety reform and Ubuntu compassion.

12/01/2026

READ NOW!!!

Legal representative issues detailed statement on Thomas Junior Sithole's death in Vaal River boat incident, January 9, 2026. Full timeline and facts revealed.

12/12/2025

https://projectcb.online/attempted-gag-order-journalist-receives-invalid-agreement-demanding-silence-on-murder-investigation/
Vaalweekblad

Investigative journalist receives invalid legal agreement attempting to silence reporting on murder investigation. Examining press freedom threats, legal intimidation tactics, and the fight for journalistic integrity.