Donald De Souza is a fictional character in the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale, played by Michael Jayston.

During his year in the programme, Donald falls out with both his children, Anna (Emma Davies) and Miles (Ayden Callaghan), before he dies of a heart attack.

Jasmine Thomas (Jenna-Louise Coleman), an aspiring local journalist, is annoyed that Nicola is flirting with her boyfriend, David Metcalfe (Matthew Wolfenden), and discovers that Donald is in a coma in hospital.

A successful businessman, Donald's company, "De Souza Enterprises", takes over the refuse collection contract from the Kings and persuades Carl to join him.

On 13 September 2008, the Daily Mirror reported that Michael Jayston and Matthew Bose - who plays Paul Lambert - had both quit the soap.

The article said that morale was said to be at "an all-time low" and the cast and crew "have slammed the show's tacky storylines and lack of direction since the arrival of producer Anita Turner."

[1] Writing on his "Soapland" blog for the Daily Mirror, Tony Stewart wrote on 15 November 2008 that for an actor of Jayston's "calibre", the storyline of the Kings versus the De Souza was "dull" and rarely did "justice to his talents".