In an email dated 9 May and sent to the DA Johannesburg's regional executive committee by DA Gauteng leaders Solly Msimanga and Fred Nel, the party cited "significant underperformance during the 2021 election campaign" as the motivating factor for placing it under administration.
"You will recall that the recent deep-dive analysis of the past election campaign made several concrete recommendations," the communique stated.
"These recommendations were adopted by Fedex and federal council. One of these recommendations was that the Johannesburg region should be placed under administration.
"The reasons for this emanates from the region's significant underperformance during the 2021 election campaign."
Other factors mentioned as reasons for the placing of the region under administration, according to the email, included "internal factionalism, lack of performance by public representatives at all levels, and leadership conflict".
At least two DA national leaders and a Johannesburg regional leader confirmed the authenticity of the email and said it had been circulated internally.