Leon’s secret Mmusi mission
● Tony Leon tells Maimane to allow new leadership in DA ● Helen Zille quits liberal think-tank to vie for top DA post ● Maimane supporters say white liberals are fighting back
● Former DA leader Tony Leon and his longtime ally Ryan Coetzee have made a dramatic intervention in the party’s leadership crisis. This week, the Sunday Times can disclose, Leon formed part of a delegation of senior party figures led by Coetzee to ask embattled leader Mmusi Maimane to quit in the interests of the party.
The move came just days before former DA leader Helen Zille stunned the party by announcing that she would make herself available for the powerful post of federal chair, which would put her in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the DA if she wins,
Maimane’s supporters see the moves as the return of the party’s white old-guard elements, with a source close to the leader saying: “What we see here is the resurgence of the white liberal old guard. They are going round saying it’s time to reclaim the DA, it’s time to save the DA.”
Leon’s move follows a swirl of recent damaging press reports, apparently aimed at ensnaring Maimane in scandal, and growing disquiet in the party about his leadership, especially after this year’s election results, which were a big setback for the party.
Maimane is facing growing scrutiny after claims, not denied by him, that he was living in a house owned by a Durban businessman, and that he had made use of an SUV donated by controversial former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste.
An internal DA investigation this week cleared Maimane of any wrongdoing.
Underlying the rift is criticism that the DA has lost its way under Maimane, and that the attempt to lure black voters by having a bright and dynamic black leader at the helm has backfired.
Coinciding with Leon’s intervention was Zille quitting the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), which she joined only in July this year as a senior policy fellow and analyst. Zille had been increasingly at odds with Maimane and the party’s “black caucus”, especially over issues such as affirmative action and economic policy.
Accompanying Leon and Coetzee on their behind-the-scenes visit to Maimane was the powerful founder and former chair of Capitec Bank, Michiel le Roux. With a fortune estimated at more than R18bn, Le Roux’s presence could have sent a strong message about how the party’s funders view the direction the party has taken under Maimane.
Leon declined to comment this week, saying he would do so only once the findings of an organisational review panel instituted by Maimane in June this year were released.
The panel was set up after the DA’s poor showing in the elections, in which its national support slipped from 22.23% in 2014 to 20.77%. It shed votes to the right-wing Freedom Front Plus, but failed to pick up the middle-class black voters it hoped Maimane and his new style would attract. His detractors lampooned his approach as “ANC lite”.
To further muddy the leadership waters, the IRR weighed in with an “opinion piece” in which it suggested Western Cape premier Alan Winde would be a suitable DA leader.
The piece was shot down by Maimane’s supporters, who characterised it as “racist”, rejecting its argument that elevating a white man to the DA leadership showed the party was truly nonracial in its approach.
Zille explained her attempted move back into mainstream politics as a move to stabilise the party.
“My reasons for doing this is that the party needs to be stabilised,” she said.
Others vying for the position are former
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DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip, former deputy chief whip Mike Waters and deputy federal chair Thomas Walters.
No black leaders made it to the final list of candidates. Coetzee, who worked closely with Leon as his strategist during his days as DA leader in the early 2000s and went on to serve as a special adviser to Zille, is chairing the organisational review panel. Le Roux is also a panel member.
The panel was tasked with conducting a review of the DA’s “fitness to achieve its objective of building a constitutional liberal democratic alternative to the ANC”.
It was also asked to probe the “underlying drivers of the party’s performance in the 2019 elections”, including “the capacity of the party’s leadership and public representatives”, policies and strategies.
DA insiders told the Sunday Times that Coetzee’s panel on Monday told Maimane at the meeting at parliament that they would be recommending to the DA federal council in the next two weeks that:
● The DA should go into an early congress to elect new leadership;
● Should the proposed early congress be convened, Maimane should not avail himself for election as the party is in need of new leaders; and
● There should be a leadership change in DA-led metros such as Tshwane, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The panel has found that the DA is directionless at a policy level with little or no clarity on values, and its relationship with the EFF has damaged the party’s brand and alienated its electoral support base.
In addition, the panel is said to have singled out a DA statement on an incident in the North West town of SchweizerReneke, where a white teacher had white and black pupils sit separately in class.
The panel is said to have told Maimane that the party’s stance on the incident alienated white voters.
When the story broke, Maimane said the incident was “unacceptable”.
“I hold strong to the value of a diverse society and such an image is unacceptable. We have to build schools that are diverse. We have to build communities and centres that are inclusive to all South Africans,” Maimane said at the time.
The statement, the panel told Maimane, hurt the party at the polls.
Maimane is said to have told the panel he had already called for an early congress.
“He said: ‘Let’s go to conference because that is where we must refresh,’ ” said an insider.
Coetzee on Friday declined to comment on the meeting with Maimane or the preliminary findings presented to him.
“We are not commenting on anything related to the review. We would advise all interested parties not to make any assumptions or draw any conclusions about the contents of our report until it has been delivered,” he said.
Maimane said: “The review panel verbally communicated the draft recommendations to me. I have since written to the members of the panel requesting they present these draft recommendations, alongside the full report, to the party’s federal executive ahead of the upcoming Federal Council sitting on 19 and 20 October. Ahead of that, I cannot comment on the contents of the findings.”
DA insiders sympathetic to Maimane said the review panel he was instrumental in establishing had turned against him as “white liberals” started the process to “reclaim their party”.
Le Roux was not available for comment.