‘You are not sure that the leader you have is not a racist’

Tony Leon’s comments calling Mmusi Maimane an ‘experiment’ have lifted the lid on what disgruntled black leaders describe as insidious racism and a refusal to hold racists to account

It’s not something the leaders in the Democratic Alliance (DA) want to discuss in public, but Tony Leon’s tone-deaf remarks terming Mmusi Maimane’s tenure a failed “experiment” has brought to the fore resentment around race in the party.

At least six black DA leaders holding senior positions in parliament and provincial legislatures in several provinces have said they have resorted to silence following the “old guard’s” removal of Maimane as the organisation’s leader.

Many feel that there is a disparity in how black and white leaders are treated within the party and Leon’s comments have only exacerbated the simmering racial tensions internally.

However, some provincial leaders don’t believe that the tensions are one-sided, going as far as to blame Maimane for the vitriol spewed at him as he was warned not to become too close to the DA’S alleged “whiteboys’ club”.

“Mmusi needs to take responsibility for his own demise as well as the silencing of black voices because he knew he was being used as an experiment. That was an experiment Mmusi was willing to be part of. So, in essence, Tony Leon was correct,” said one black leader, who asked to remain anonymous.

But Maimane would not concede to the Mail & Guardian that he was allegedly naive to trust that his rapid rise was based solely on merit.

“I think it’s dangerous to say that it is simply a matter of black versus white in the DA, as is it dangerous to infer the same in South African society more broadly. Rather, it is a tension between those who believe black and white people can work together on an equal footing towards a common future, and those who implicitly believe black people must assimilate or become fronts and experiments in an attempt to maintain the status quo and not ‘rock the boat’ too much. That is what is at play in the DA, like in many other sectors of our society, including corporate South Africa,” Maimane said.

He refuted assertions that his closeness to conservative members of the DA has now left remaining black leaders in limbo and silenced as the party seemingly shifts further to the right.

Leon’s comments are not isolated incidents. In May 2014, when Lindiwe Mazibuko left the party, Helen Zille reportedly said she had “made” her, following the former Western Cape premier’s support of Mazibuko’s campaign to be parliamentary leader in 2011, when the latter was only 31 years old.

Zille would later write in her book Not Without a Fight that she had told Mazibuko that it was early for her to challenge Athol Trollip, a veteran politician, for the position.

A few years later, former City of Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba also became disillusioned with the party. Zille called Mashaba’s mayoral reign not “just an accident, it turned out to be a car crash”.

Former and current party leaders who spoke to the M&G see this trend as telling of how the party treats and views black leaders.

A senior party leader complained that the way black leaders have been dealt with compared to their white counterparts was unfair.

“The fact that Leon is being handled the way he is shows the disparity. It’s very telling from my point of view how issues are being dealt with and bringing into question who is important.”

The source said the biggest mistake that black leaders have made was to stay silent on blatant racism, but leader John Steenhuisen’s resounding mandate made it difficult to challenge much in the party at this point.

John Moodey, the party’s former Gauteng leader who defected to Mashaba’s Actionsa, said a younger black guard in the party has found their ideas suppressed and felt their positions were favours they owed in return for sticking to a tired script.

“It was almost that feeling of ‘you must be grateful for the opportunity that you have, to serve in the position you are serving in’. That is fairly prevalent in the DA,” he said.

“I had a mission to take Gauteng in 2019. We lost the vision of bringing the ANC below 50% as a result of internal battles and scuffling, which the voters didn’t like,” he said.

Moodey said while he felt there was a racial divide when he joined the DA in the later part of Tony Leon’s leadership, this changed when Helen Zille took over. More black members ascended to positions of power and were given the space to enact change. But Moodey said Zille herself had changed and was no longer the same person he met two decades ago.

“Tony Leon’s comments smack of superiority… The shift in the DA happened a year or so before Mmusi left.

“It was a shift of races. There was this thing: they wanted to take back their party. This constant referral to those of colour, that we are Anc-lite. We would ask ourselves what makes you more of a liberal than I am? Is it because I am African?” he said.

The tension harks back to the party’s dichotomy of views on dealing with racial redress. It led to a bitter fallout between Zille and Mazibuko, the DA’S first black parliamentary leader, and the latter’s departure from politics. Like Mazibuko, Maimane was Zille’s protégé and how both left created an impression, reinforced by Leon’s words, that black leaders remain expendable.