BOSA leader Mmusi Maimane (left) and People's Prosperity Movement's Chad Louw. Maimane is expected to announce the absorption of PPM into BOSA on Tuesday morning
Image: IOL
Build One SA is expected to announce on Tuesday that it will absorb Chad Louw’s People’s Prosperity Movement (PPM).
An insider with direct knowledge of the talks confirmed the deal, which has been circulating in political circles ahead of a formal announcement by BOSA leader Mmusi Maimane in Cape Town.
The insider said the move will effectively end the PPM as an independent party just months before the local government elections.
This means the PPM will not contest the 2026 elections as a standalone party.
"Its leadership, membership and structures will transfer to BOSA in full," a source said.
"Louw and other PPM leaders will be placed on the BOSA candidate list and accommodated within the party's leadership structures."
Louw co-founded the PPM in 2025 after parting ways with the Patriotic Alliance (PA), registering it with the Electoral Commission with himself as Secretary-General.
The party, based primarily in the Western Cape, had been preparing to contest the 2026 polls independently.
It is not Louw's first political home.
Before the PPM he was in the PA under Gayton McKenzie, and before that the ANC — which he joined in 2017 and walked out of in 2022, saying the party had become too factional to serve the communities it was supposed to represent.
Louw first made national headlines in November 2021 when he was elected mayor of Oudtshoorn at just 24, becoming the youngest mayor in SA history.
He grew up in Dysselsdorp, a township outside Oudtshoorn in the Klein Karoo, the son of a domestic worker and a warehouse worker.
His mayoralty was cut short when his coalition collapsed.
BOSA was founded by Maimane in 2020 after he stepped down as leader of the DA.
The party is contesting the upcoming municipal elections, scheduled to take place between November 2026 and February 2027.
Louw, when contacted for comment, was coy.
"Let's see what happens on Tuesday," he said on Monday night.
"I have nothing to say at this stage.
"Whatever needs to be said will be said at the appropriate time and place."
He declined to elaborate further.
Maimane said: "It is better for me to speak at the event.
"Our job is to build a movement of all South Africans who share common values.
"BOSA will contest elections and represent citizens who believe in a non-racial future with a government that works for all people.
"We must end corruption in municipalities and elect the best leaders in our communities."
BOSA's media advisory, issued by party spokesperson Roger Solomons on Monday, confirmed that a formal announcement would be made on Tuesday but stopped short of naming the party involved.
"Dr Mmusi Maimane will on Tuesday announce the formal merger between BOSA and a new political party, which will result in the party being fully absorbed by BOSA," the advisory read.
Solomons said it would be a full and final absorption.
"This will be a full transition into BOSA through structured integration of leadership, membership, systems, and programmes," it read.
BOSA, GOOD and Rise Mzansi announced six months ago their decision to consolidate under the banner "Unite for Change" and contest elections as one party.
However, the parties announced at the weekend that the move had been abandoned before the looming elections.
The Unite for Change national leaders' council, Patricia de Lille, Songezo Zibi and Maimane, said it had become clear that merging three parties, their structures and activists needed more time "due to its intensity and complexity".
The three parties will contest the elections under their own banners, putting the Unite for Change merger on ice until after the polls.
IOL