DA to probe Maimane car, house claims
• Acting federal chair Thomas Walters says party wants matter dealt with as a matter of priority
The DA’s internal finance committee has started probing allegations relating to party leader Mmusi Maimane.
Maimane on Sunday said the allegations levelled against him were a smear campaign “from gutless individuals who would not be named”.
Acting federal chair Thomas Walters said Maimane had called for the probe. He said the committee dealt with any concerns relating to resources and that it would do a factual check.
Walters said if there was anything to report, it would go to the party’s federal executive. The party wanted it dealt with and it was something that had “a priority tag” on it.
Walters said his personal view was that the allegations came from anonymous leaks with the aim of painting a particular picture, but that the best way of countering any “nefarious background dealings” was to get to the facts.
The federal committee is looking into Maimane’s continued use of a vehicle sponsored by disgraced former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste. It will also look into his rental agreement with a Durban businessman for a house which he initially declared as his own.
Both stories were leaked to the Rapport newspaper.
The leaks come ahead of the DA’s federal council meeting in October in which the first review in more than a decade of the party’s structures and processes will be tabled.
Deputy federal chair of the party, Mike Waters, reportedly called on Maimane to clarify the issues surrounding the house and the car, saying the DA had to hold itself to account just as it held the ANC to account.
The review was called for in the aftermath of the elections in May in which the DA lost support in its strongholds to the ANC and the Freedom Front Plus. This trend has continued in by-elections.
Some in the party believe the knives are out for the DA’s leader, who was the first to preside over a decline in the party’s electoral fortunes.
The Institute of Race Relations, a liberal think-tank where the party’s former leader Helen Zille has found employment after her two terms as Western Cape premier, published an opinion piece written by one of its analysts on Tuesday calling on Maimane to resign.
THE BEST WAY OF COUNTERING ANY ‘ NEFARIOUS BACKGROUND DEALINGS’ WAS TO GET TO THE FACTS
SOME BELIEVE KNIVES ARE OUT FOR THE DA LEADER, WHO WAS THE FIRST TO PRESIDE OVER A DECLINE IN PARTY S ELECTORAL FORTUNES