United For Change (UFC), an attempted merger between GOOD, Rise Mzansi (RM), and Build One South Africa (BOSA) has failed. UFC had been expected to contest the upcoming local government elections (LGE), due to be held towards the end of the year.

In a media statement released this week by UFC, the organisation said, “While significant ground has been covered in this regard, it has become clear that integrating three political parties, their structures, and their activists needs more time due to its intensity and complexity. It cannot be implemented effectively under the pressure of an election campaign. As a result, the parties have determined that the best option is to contest the 2026 [local government elections] individually and pursue consolidation afterwards.”

The statement said that the parties would still cooperate before the LGE. It said, “Therefore, the parties will make best endeavours to minimise or prevent unnecessary competition between them wherever possible.”

Veteran political analyst Gareth van Onselen said on X: “Just a brief thought on the failure of United for Change to unite. The primary reason for the failure, as per the UFC, is: integration ‘cannot be implemented effectively under the pressure of an election campaign’. This is difficult to believe. The [Democratic Alliance] was formed in June 2000. The [Democratic Party] (9.56%) and the [New National Party] (6.87%), mortal enemies and both significantly bigger parties, both with substantial national, provincial and local representation, managed to merge before the December 2000 LGE, where they stood as the DA. Six months. This was, by some considerable distance, a far more complicated arrangement, and suggests that the UFC's failure has nothing to do with logistics or mechanics and everything to do with internal politics. Interesting also that, as far as I can tell, only the GOOD Twitter account publicised news of the failure. Suggests GOOD was at the heart of it. Which makes sense: it is the only one with actual existing local representation, and its existing candidates would have had to pay the price of integration, while RM and BOSA candidates had nothing really to lose. That's just a guess, but also a fact.”

In the 2024 national elections the three parties’ combined vote share was 1.6%, with RM and BOSA each winning two parliamentary seats and GOOD one. RM and BOSA also each won a seat in the Gauteng provincial legislature, while GOOD won one seat in the Western Cape provincial legislature.

Sources told The Common Sense that Mmusi Maimane, the leader of BOSA, had been advised against the merger, being told that he had a better value proposition with BOSA alone than with a merging of the three parties into UFC.

GOOD has lost support since it was formed following the departure of its leader, Patricia de Lille, from the DA in 2018. In 2019 it won 70 000 votes in the national election, but won fewer than 30 000 in 2024, the fewest of any party that still managed to win a parliamentary seat.

Marius Roodt, deputy editor of The Common Sense, said “The UFC is one of those strange beasts you see sometimes, where the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Maimane, and Songezo Zibi, the leader of RM, are likely better served concentrating on their own parties than acting as a life raft for GOOD.”