Early congress the only way out for DA
The DA should put itself out of its misery and just hold an early congress. That the party is miserable, is quite clear: there is a war playing out said to have begun around the time the DA took the decision to work with the EFF after the 2016 local government elections.
The party was on a high after securing three metros. It was hungry to govern, and so at the time was prepared to work with a party that was on the opposite end of the political spectrum. They also had a common enemy in then president Jacob Zuma.
However, things started going downhill when the ANC finally managed to ensure that Zuma left office, and the DA and EFF no longer had a common enemy. Internal tension over the party’s stance and policies started to intensify, while the ANC was on a high of renewal under President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The DA also became embroiled in a battle with former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, and had to deal with the water crisis in the Western Cape, the party’s traditional stronghold.
DA leaders started openly fighting each other on social media and the honeymoon with the EFF came to an end, culminating in the party losing control of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
This all happened ahead of the crucial 2019 general elections, which saw the DA’s national support drop for the first time in a national poll. It failed to live up to its own internal targets of bringing the ANC below 50% in Gauteng and the Northern Cape, as well as growing its support nationally.
Instead, the party bled support, most prominently to the FF+ on the Right and the ANC on the Left, due to the rise of Ramaphosa. This trend has continued in by-election results after that dismal poll.
This was the perfect opportunity for those in the party who were unhappy with the direction it was taking under Mmusi Maimane to push for his removal. But provincial leaders rallied behind him and quashed such calls.
The DA then instituted a review of its structures and processes, which will be presented to the federal executive later in October. There is already a feeling among those backing Maimane that the review will be used as ammunition to once again try to remove him as leader.
It is clear the knives are out for Maimane, who in the past few weeks has had to defend himself after reports about a house in Cape Town he first claimed he owned and was later revealed to be renting, and the use of a car, months after news broke of the corporate scandal, donated by Steinhoff.
Maimane’s handling of these allegations has been less than unsatisfactory, with him calling it a smear campaign. The DA’s finance committee is now looking into the matter and the allegations are likely to be added to the arsenal of those wanting him out.
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) seemed to be picking up the baton for the liberal bloc when it tweeted an extract of an opinion piece this week by one of its analysts that called for Maimane to resign and for Western Cape premier Alan Winde to be the party’s next leader.
There is a clear link between the IRR and the DA, with the party’s former leader Helen Zille having taken up a position at the institute after her term as Western Cape premier came to an end earlier in 2019. The DA’s former head of policy, Gwen Ngwenya, was COO of the IRR before she took up the position in the DA.
How will this battle play out? Maimane himself has proposed an early congress, but this was shot down by the federal executive, which said it was undesirable to do so as the current leadership has only been in place for 18 months.
But the DA is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. Going to an early congress would force both camps in the party to put forward their preferred candidates and vision and allow members at the congress to finally decide which way they want the party to go.
It is not clear whom the camp opposed to Maimane would put forward as a contender. It is unlikely Winde would accept such a nomination. Some believe the liberal bloc does not have the numbers to defeat Maimane in a vote, so rather than go to an early congress, they would prefer to focus on issues with his leadership.
A call for Maimane to step down is expected to come at October’s federal council. It will also be interesting to hear what comes out of the review, and whether Maimane’s leadership will get another beating.
The DA’s next congress is scheduled to take place in 2021, the year of the next local government elections. As things stand, the DA is poised to lose its grip on some of the metros it took control of in 2016.
Taking all of this into consideration, what is clear is that the party cannot risk going into the 2021 polls in the state it is in. It seems the only solution right now is an early congress.
SOME BELIEVE THE LIBERALS DO NOT HAVE THE NUMBERS TO DEFEAT MAIMANE, SO WOULD PREFER TO FOCUS ON ISSUES WITH HIS LEADERSHIP
● Quintal is political editor.