Unable to fill Zille’s shoes

WE learn that social media is for selfies and not for intelligent conversation. We learn that South Africans are uncomfortable with real life; if Helen Zille’s tweets were politically unwise, they were not untrue and Singapore is a socially and economically vibrant proof.

We learn that, although freedom of opinion and freedom of speech are constitutionally guaranteed, a member of the DA who exercises those rights is bringing the party into disrepute. It does not matter if you have a sound anti-apartheid history, if (as mayor) you turned Cape Town into the best-run metropole or if (as premier) you turned the Western Cape into the best-run province. When a political party wants your opinion, the party will give it to you.

Mmusi Maimane had an excellent opportunity to encourage an intelligent and robust debate to show the DA is more than just another populist party. He had the opportunity to have all South Africans take a long and dispassionate look at the cold, hard, facts and finally start creating a South Africa designed by reason and not be emotion.

Instead, like any politician, he sacrificed leadership for populism. He may have shown himself big enough to cut Helen’s apron strings, but he has also shown he is not big enough to fill her shoes. — Dave Rankin, Cambridge