Trollip faces keen fight over pivotal party role
DA heads for crucial leadership election ahead of next year’s polls
THE upcoming election of the DA’s federal chairperson will be a makeor-break moment for the party’s aspirations to win control of South Africa’s economic hub of Gauteng next year.
The winner may also influence how the DA fares in a coalition government, should the ANC fail to get an outright majority in next year’s polls.
These are some of the views of political analysts as the DA gears up to elect its new federal leadership at the Tshwane Events Centre from April 7 to 8.
Yesterday, the party confirmed that Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip, his Tshwane counterpart Solly Msimanga and Free State chairwoman Dr Annelie Lotriet were running for the powerful federal chairperson position.
Federal leader Mmusi Maimane will remain uncontested.
James Selfe is also running uncontested for the position of federal council chairman.
Analyst Dr Somadoda Fikeni said the party was between a rock and a hard place when it came to keeping its traditional voter base happy, while also opening up the possibility of working with other political parties.
“The DA is facing a dilemma,” he said.
“It cannot be seen [to be] removing all the white folk at the top because its traditional supporters and funders may retreat and embark on an investor strike.
“At the same time, if this contestation is racialised and not managed, it could confirm the worst fears for the DA that it is a party where race still matters.”
Fikeni said how Trollip fared on the planned motion by the EFF to remove him as Bay mayor would also play a critical role.
If Trollip won the federal chairman position but continued to be challenged by the EFF in the Bay thereafter, it would almost certainly lead to the collapse of coalition arrangements between the DA and the EFF nationally.
The EFF’s motion will be tabled on March 29, a week before the DA congress.
Analyst Ongama Mtimka said the contest between Trollip and Msimanga went beyond political merit and was about whether they could garner enough support.
“Between Trollip and Msimanga, the contesting idea is of getting more black people in leadership positions to get more black votes,” Mtimka said.
“The official line of the DA and the project strongly supported by Helen Zille is that the black emerging politicians are not without capability.
“Trollip has political capital but this has been weakened because of the tensions within the Eastern Cape.
“Gauteng is the economic hub and the key ambition for the DA is to get the province – which it is very close to – and this is the thought behind Msimanga’s nomination, to get support.”
Professor Mcebisi Ndletyana said the race between Trollip and Msimanga would be a tight one.
“Trollip is a fairly established name in the DA.
“He has been around and it now depends on whether you think you need new blood in the leadership to bring more support.
“The other thing that Trollip has in his favour is that as a mayoral candidate for the DA he was able to grow the DA in Nelson Mandela Bay.”
Trollip said yesterday he was confident he would be re-elected.
“I bring vast experience to the position. I’ve served in the federal executive under three DA leaders, and I believe that I know and represent our party’s values and principles.
“I am also prepared to speak truth to power within our party and that is something that is crucial to prevent the temptation to be populist or expedient.”
His nominator, Eastern Cape leader Nqaba Bhanga, said he had nominated Trollip because he was a capable leader.
Meanwhile, Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela, who will lead the largest contingent to the congress, would not say outright which nominees he supported.
“The principle of the matter here is that at the last congress, in 2015, we elected a leadership and I strongly believe changing leaders for no specific reason is not the correct way to go – give them two terms to prove their worth before voting them in or out,” Ma-
dikizela said. “In our elected top five positions we have two blacks, two coloureds and one white, while provincially eight out of nine leaders are non-white.”
Madikizela said this was not a matter of voting out a white person to replace him with a black one.
“As a matter of principle, I do not see why leadership positions should change now.”
Msimanga said he would not have accepted the nomination if he was not confident that he would win.
“You don’t stand for a position for the fun of it, but because there is work that needs to be done,” he said.
“I do believe it is high time that the DA shows a diverse group of leaders instead of centralising everything around just the leader.
“We need to move away from centralising everything from just the leader of the party if we are to reach as many communities as we want to in 2019.”
Lotriet said if she were to be elected to the position next month, this would bring cohesion and synergy to the party’s federal leadership.
“With all my years of experience as a chairperson of Free State, I have also come from an environment [in which] I have occupied many positions as a chairperson within academia,” she said.