A second look at the DA’s mayoral candidate for the Overberg in 2026

Dr Annelie Rabie has held a number of roles within the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape. She is now the DA’s mayoral candidate for the Overberg District Municipality in the 2026 elections.

You will no doubt be offered many glowing reports about Rabie this year in the run up to the election. Therefore, in the spirit of independent thinking and robust discourse, I thought to share some of the less known information about Rabie’s career.

In March 2011, Rabie was suspended from the Business Against Crime (BAC) organization after allegations that Rabie was involved in unauthorised use of a BAC credit card, amounting to roughly R37 000. Further reporting alleged that “she was accused of… inflating her salary, including giving herself an R8,000.00 a month car allowance.”

In April 2011, she submitted her resignation after being nominated as the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) mayoral candidate for Prince Albert Local Municipality.

In May 2011, she was elected as a DA councillor in Prince Albert during the local government elections and subsequently became the DA’s caucus leader on the council.

Regarding the allegations, Rabie denied criminal wrongdoing, stating that the credit-card use resulted from confusion between personal and company cards. She was found guilty of misconduct at a disciplinary hearing and dismissed, but was never criminally charged. Following investigation, the DA cleared her to continue in public office.

From a governance perspective, what happened raises questions about whether internal ethical standards focus on the absence of criminal charges rather than on higher benchmarks of financial oversight and institutional accountability. Should the DA have even allowed Rabie to continue in public office?

In 2018 Rabie was elected mayor of the district municipality after the DA formed a coalition with the Karoo Community Party. However in July 2020 the coalition collapsed and Rabie was removed from office through a motion of no confidence.

Her return to prominence came after the DA’s 2021 electoral victory in Overstrand, where she was elected Executive Mayor. Overstrand was already a well-run municipality with a record of so-called “clean audits.”

However, in April 2025, Rabie stepped down as mayor of Overstrand, a few months before the DA-led council, at its ordinary meeting on 29 October 2025, approved the write-off of irrecoverable debt totalling R53,658,380.02.

The R53 million in irrecoverable municipal debt does not stand alone, but is part of a yearly increase as the chart below indicates.

We contacted Dr Rabie at her publicly available email [email protected] for comment on these matters but received no response.

Looking at her political record, there appears to be a pattern of controversy followed by reshuffling, from Prince Albert to Hermanus, and now to the Overberg. In a so-called “democracy”, voters deserve to know exactly who they are voting for, and this article offers a brief second look at Rabie’s political career.