Only 14 of 64 political parties have managed to secure a parliamentary seat in their first election in 2 decades of elections in South Africa. The Democratic Alliance secured 50 seats in its 2004 debut — a first for a new party in 2 decades. Two-thirds of parties haven’t won a seat in their first election.

Former ANC members founded the political parties Congress of the People and the Economic Freedom Fighters. Cope secured 30 seats in its first election in 2009. The EFF won 25 seats in 2014.

Former Pan Africanist Congress member Patricia de Lille was the first woman in South Africa to establish a political party. In 2003 she founded the Independent Democrats. It secured 7 seats in 2004. The party merged with the DA in 2010. 8 years later, De Lille resigned from the DA and established Good, which won 2 seats in the 2019 election.