DA spat ‘has roots’

The move by the Democratic Alliance (DA) lower structures to hold the party’s Federal Council to account for its decisions, should be seen against a growing trend by grassroots structures in South African party politics to insist on “bottom-up decision-making, instead of decisions imposed from the top”, a political analyst has said.

Ralph Mathekga said this trend was not limited to the DA but also found in the ruling ANC. Regional party structures have consolidated their power bases to now be able to influence the political direction of their top leaderships, he said.

But another analyst, Somadoda Fikeni, blamed the tensions in the DA on a lack of ideological direction.

Mathekga and Fikeni were reacting to the spat between the DA chief whip John Steenhuisen and party members from his home province, KwaZulu-Natal, who reportedly want to sideline him for his alleged opposition to diversity in the party’s candidate lists.

The Sunday Times reported that Steenhuisen might not make it onto the candidates list. Mathekga said the real power base of the party, which was regional, was now getting the DA federal leadership to be held to account.

The DA often talked of itself as a federal party and this approach positions provinces as the sources of power, Mathekga said.

But Fikeni attributed the DA’s problems to an ideological crisis in the party.

The post-Zuma era, and the resurgence of the EFF, were beginning to impact badly on the Democratic Alliance, hence the infighting, he said.

Fikeni said the DA cannot reconcile its customary white constituency and its new and growing black membership.