A lot of pieces for Zille to pick up

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says “parting is such sweet sorrow”, because she knows it will not be long before she sees her love again.

Though they may have tried to make the best of yesterday’s parting of the ways, the leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA) knows that there will be far more sorrow than sweet ahead for the party.

Even though Mmusi Maimane in resigning as leader; Athol Trollip in stepping down as federal chair of the party; and Helen Zille, as incoming federal executive head, all tried to put an optimistic spin on the situation, the reality is that the DA faces the biggest crisis of its existence.

It lost huge numbers of voters in this year’s election and the soul-searching which followed has clearly taken the scalp of Maimane and that of Trollip, who, although not fingered by the party’s internal inquiry into the polls shambles, took collective responsibility.

The pushback after the poll results has probably seen a resurgence in the right-leaning side of the party, which has clearly made the blacks within its ranks uncomfortable, if not deeply disturbed. Joburg executive mayor Herman Mashaba said as much ahead of his resignation earlier this week.

Zille has, seemingly, emerged out of semi-retirement to once again grab the reins of the DA – a development which has worried many in the party, given her outspoken and often arrogant manner. Rightly or wrongly, she is also associated with a slide towards conservative and raced-based values … something which makes it increasingly difficult for the party to gain the black support it needs to seriously challenge the ANC.

Tellingly, even though he will remain in parliament in the interim, Maimane said he no longer believes the DA is capable of saving South Africa.

That’s a lot of pieces you have to pick up, Helen.