Daily Dispatch

Maimane stamp of leadership

FINALLY, a breakthrough in the Helen Zille tweeting saga. The solution – that will see Zille step down from the DA’s decision-making structures while remaining Western Cape premier until at least her term ends in 2019 – is unlikely to please everyone, possibly the opponents of the DA least of all.

Many wanted Zille tossed out on her ear – for a variety of reasons, some of them not difficult to understand.

Yesterday DA leader Mmusi Maimane showed that he would act but the result was as sudden as it was unexpected.

Maimane somehow managed to put a bit in Zille’s mouth and graciously rein her in.

And when the DA’s manner of dealing with Zille’s offensive tweeting on colonialism was compared with that of the ANC’s failure to deal with President Jacob Zuma, Maimane drew a distinction.

Unlike Zuma, Zille had not violated the constitution, he said. Had that been the case, “we would not even be having this conversation”. On that he was emphatic.

For the DA the solution reached when one seemed so elusive makes sense for obvious reasons.

First, it will avoid a protracted dispute that will distract the party’s focus from matters of government.

Second, it will avoid a possible rupture within the country’s second largest party.

But a win-win result it was not, certainly not for a bolshy individual like Zille.

Anyone looking for a sense of triumphalism on her part at yesterday’s press conference would have been hard pressed.

That it was hard for Zille to publicly climb down from the very high horse she has been on for the past three months was clear.

If her demeanour is to be described in a word it would be as chastened. Not so much by the firm young man sitting beside her, but by being forced to face the consequences of her own folly.

Success in life can be a dangerous thing and Zille made the horrible mistake of falling into its biggest trap – believing in the myth of one’s own greatness. And she did so for all the world to see. But self-importance invariably leads to a being stripped of the very same delusion.

And in Zille’s case this has once again happened – correctly so – for all the world to see.

She has definitely not come out of this matter smelling of roses. But she has surely and deservedly emerged humbled.

Maimane however, in handling one of the DA’s biggest internal crises and an even bigger personal leadership challenge, has been impressive.

About a week ago one of our writers, Lolonga Tali, observed – correctly – that Maimane was showing that he was not tied to the apron strings of his predecessor.

Yesterday Maimane went at step further. He showed a characteristic that is much needed, not only of being a leader committed to walking his talk, but of being a unifier ready to take the high road of reconciliation.

In acting as he has, Maimane has modelled the thing he professes to believe in.

In doing so he has shown he is not anyone else’s man and has indelibly put his stamp of leadership on the party.