Beware the "Facebook politicians" who criticised the party in public, Democratic Alliance (DA) interim leader and candidate for the party's leadership John Steenhuisen warned delegates for the DA's upcoming elective conference in his latest letter.

Steenhuisen started by saying that he was excited about the direction the party was headed, but that there was still one critical element it needed to get right: "message discipline".

"Voters will only understand our vision and offer to them if we relentlessly and consistently tell them about it. From now until the 2021 election and beyond, every single DA activist – and every member of this party is an activist before they hold any other position – must talk with voters about one thing, and one thing only: how we will take power away from the state that is holding our country hostage, and give it to the people," Steenhuisen wrote.

"We must talk about only that. Nothing else. Every single day."

He said the party's efforts in this regard had been undermined by "members who act more like political analysts than political activists".

"Voters simply will not understand our offer if they are bombarded daily by Facebook posts, tweets, WhatsApp messages, blogs and op-eds by DA members airing their dirty laundry out in public.

"How can we expect voters to understand our message when the only message that some members send into the world is to complain about their personal gripes with our party? This conduct is highly unprofessional and hugely damaging, and it must come to an end."

He said every member who had an issue with the party, could raise their concerns in the appropriate forums or directly with leaders.

"The practice of some members acting more like analysts than activists has also spawned the damaging new phenomenon of Facebook politicians. While most party members are working out on the streets of our communities every day to deliver the DA difference, Facebook politicians spend all day on social media self-righteously posting about their personal lives and getting into arguments," Steenhuisen wrote.

As he did several times before, Steenhuisen warned that internal squabbles were repelling voters.

"The vast majority of DA members love our party just as much as I do, and will gladly adhere to the mantra of communicating our vision of giving power to the people on message, in volume, over time.

"But in those rare, yet enormously damaging cases where Facebook politicians and political analysts wearing DA T-shirts damage our party with their narcissistic and wayward communications, we must all unite to ensure that they are quickly held accountable."

As he and his challenger for the party's top spot hit the campaign trail, Steenhuisen's mantra was: "There is nothing wrong with the DA that can't be fixed with what is right with the DA."

Mbali Ntuli took a more critical stance. In a letter to delegates, Ntuli last month bemoaned what she described as "cult-like behaviour associated with big personalities" and criticised the party's Federal Legal Commission, which handled its internal disciplinary processes.

In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Ntuli said she had experienced in the past year in the DA that there was a view that you were an "errant person" or ill-disciplined when you raised a dissenting view.

"To have people feel they cannot raise their voices or that they need to fear or worry about disciplinary action is the wrong track for where the party should be," she said.

Meanwhile, the party on Wednesday announced its theme for the hybrid virtual conference, scheduled for 31 October and 1 November – "Real Hope. Real Change. Now."

"The theme embodies a DA hard at work on a path to building a new majority for South Africa that will see our country out of the clutches of bad governance and corruption. In everything the DA does, we work toward a better future for our country, offering real hope of real change for South Africa," read a statement from DA federal chairperson Ivan Meyer.

"The DA has been hard at work in preparing for this historic Federal Congress and preparations are going to plan," Meyer said.

The party announced the candidates on Tuesday.