JOHANNESBURG - While much attention has been given to the race for party leader, this weekend's DA conference also has to make key policy decisions ahead of next year's elections.
Over 2,000 delegates will gather in Midrand for the party's two-day Federal Congress.
The party's been plagued by an exodus of black leaders, declining electoral support and troubled race relations.
Incumbent John Steenhuisen will face off with former Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse for the top job.
Political analyst Sanusha Naidu says the party needs to evaluate what it has done in Cape Town and the Western Cape and find a way to translate that message to the entire nation.
"I think one of the things that the DA will be giving a lot of attention to is the meritocracy approach to policy making and of course within that space how do you integrate that meritocracy, the role of efficiency and what a capable state should look like and what does this mean in the context of policy making," Naidu said.
"It's going to be interesting to see because one of the things that was mentioned was looking at the way in which the DA performs in the Western Cape and in particular in the Cape Town metro and of course how that fuels in the context of the image, the reputation and so forth.
"And whether those policies would come out in terms of a much broader national footprint the DA will put forward with regards to it's electricity issues, how it's moving towards getting the procurement and agreement from treasury around selling back to the city with regards to independent power producers, both customers that are living in dwellings as well as businesses," Naidu said.
"So there's a bit of an interesting overlap to see that coherence between the two spaces."