DA quarrel is bad news

THE PUBLIC tiff between mayor Patricia de Lille and her safety and security chief JP Smith does not bode well for the DA’s upcoming provincial leadership conference at the weekend.

Neither does it enhance their ambitions of making it to loftier political positions in 2019.

For two individuals of their stature, they should have displayed the kind of maturity that would see them settle their differences behind closed doors.

By allowing their row to play out in the media, they have caused damage to their party; a party that is already losing ground to the ANC, which has made it clear it wants to regain control of the Western Cape. Smith’s ambitions may be dented more than De Lille’s as it is he who had thrown his hat into the ring for election this weekend.

In taking swift action against De Lille and Smith by suspending them pending the outcome of an investigation into their public utterances, the DA appears to have made it clear it will not tolerate the party’s name being dragged down by internal squabbles.

But it begs the question of consistency – it took the party weeks to take action against its former provincial leader, Premier Helen Zille, over her tweets about colonialism and her subsequent defence thereof, while it took the DA’s leadership less than 24 hours to suspend De Lille and Smith from all party activities pending a probe.

That being said, by acting swiftly, the DA can avoid emulating what is occurring in the ranks of its nemesis, the ANC, where too often, personal, factional battles play out in the media and in the public eye.

It’s no secret the DA is losing support in the Western Cape, as evidenced by small ANC victories in by-elections that had been held in wards across the province, and the DA would do well to ensure all its members toe the party line if it wishes to retain the Western Cape and grow its support base in other provinces in the next general elections in 2019.

The probe into the two has commenced and the DA would do well to conclude the matter as swiftly as possible, or risk losing further support.