EC could be king maker: Trollip

THE Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape could play a major role in who becomes the party’s leader in parliament.

DA provincial leader Athol Trollip said: “The Eastern Cape are always the king makers. Even the ANC in the province are king makers.”

Trollip said they had not yet lobbied for anyone to lead the party. “Our members are only going to parliament [today] to have their first caucus and we don’t know who the candidates are yet,” Trollip said.

This first caucus will be on the back of the public spat over who should lead the party’s parliamentary caucus after Lindiwe Mazibuko resigned last week, opting to studies in the US.

On Sunday, Trollip accused federal chairman Wilmot James of being behind media leaks as he wanted to take over from Mazibuko.

Trollip confirmed he had written to the federal executive. The e-mails paint a picture of a divided leadership as the DA deals with the aftermath of

further

her Mazibuko’s departure.

But he said he would not discuss the e-mails. “I never discuss internal party matters with the media and certainly not correspondence I wrote to the federal executive.

“Somebody leaked it. I always speak my mind in internal party meetings.

“If I need to write to people, I write to them.”