As for Julius losing his support base... In that very same press conference he alluded to being aware that this may be the natural death of his party.
Other than that, there seems to be this idea around here that the DA can call shots because the ANC need them when the opposite is actually true. The DA need the ANC and will have to play nice in order to keep the EFF out.
The IFP guy, Hlabisa, is trying to mend these fences now but he is in it for himself too because a DA withdrawal leaves KZN hung.