Helen Zille’s views on DA momentum:

AS you read this, almost 1 500 DA members from across the country would have gathered in Nelson Mandela Bay for our sixth Federal Congress.

This is the pinnacle of our internal democratic process.

It is our highest decision-making body. At Federal Congress we elect our leaders and, if necessary, we amend our Federal Constitution. Eight years ago, almost to the day, I stood up in front of the delegates at our third Federal Congress in Midrand, Gauteng, and addressed the party for the first time as its leader.

Both the DA and South Africa were in a very different space back then. Eight years ago, the ANC governed in all nine provinces, the DA represented around 1.9 million voters and I was the mayor of Cape Town, where we held on to a shaky seven-party coalition.

Back then, the DA was good at what it did – and that was to be a strong and vocal opposition to the ANC. The party had worked incredibly hard at consolidating the opposition into a unified voice, and in growing its share of the national vote to around 12%.

Considering where the party had come from – a paltry 1.7% of the vote in 1994 – this represented huge growth. But sustaining the growth of a party is very much like driving your car – you can accelerate up to a point, but then you must either select another gear or be content to level off.

Eight years ago, the DA decided it was time to change gear.

When I took over as leader, my goals for the party were very clear. We had to grow, both in numbers and diversity, and we had to make a seamless transition from an opposition party to a party of government.

We had to stop simply saying what we would do if we were to one day govern, and instead start showing this where we governed.

The entire party united around this plan and worked to make it happen. Eight years later, I think we did. In 2007, the DA was, quite rightly, perceived as a party of minorities. Today, the DA’s white voters are outnumbered by our black, coloured and Indian voters.

We have worked very hard at transforming the party – both internally and externally.

Seven years ago, we undertook a re-branding exercise in order to position the DA as a bold and distinct voice – a party for all South Africans with a vision of a bright, new future. Gone was the old yellow (because we had nothing in common with the other yellow party) and in came a fresh blue. Gone was the old, dated logo and in came an icon of a sun rising over a land of rainbow colours.

Unencumbered by the past, we could now truly set our sights on realising the dream of 1994.

But this re-invigorated DA wasn’t just a cosmetic exercise. Parallel to the re-branding, came a complete re-engineering of the party as an organisation.

This would see us become better resourced, more professional and far more successful at getting our message out to all corners of the country. We made sure we had a professional staff presence in each of the nine provinces.

We grew our branches in traditional ANC strongholds. We became visible everywhere. And along with our visibility, came support on the streets.

Suddenly, it was no longer strange to see people walking around in DA T-shirts in all communities. We can now represent these communities with an authentic voice. This was a game-changer for us.

The other big game-changer was a psychological one.

Once we realised we were not going to be in opposition forever, we suddenly had an entirely new game-plan. Wards became stepping stones to municipalities, municipalities to metros, metros to provinces. Every intermediate goal achieved was affirmation of what was possible.

Eight years ago, not too many DA members would have spoken with much conviction about a DA national government within two decades. Now it is all we speak about. And so it has become time to move up a gear, yet again. By tomorrow morning, the DA will have a new federal leader, a new federal chairperson and three new deputy federal chairpersons. There will also be a new chairperson of federal council, deputy chairperson of federal council and chairperson of the federal finance committee.

No matter how tough the campaigning has been in the build-up to this weekend, by tomorrow the whole party will get behind the new leader and his team and focus on one thing: maintaining that momentum. Because that’s what the DA does.

Our project of enabling South Africans to improve their lives, is the only thing that matters, and nothing will distract us from it.

The immediate challenge for the new leader, will be to put together the strongest possible team. The first major challenge will be winning more votes in next year’s local government elections. To do this, we will all have to rally behind our new values charter, which will be adopted at this weekend’s congress.

This charter is what connects our vision for South Africa with the values that really matter to millions of South Africans. Once we have these values of freedom, fairness and opportunity internalised and externalised, we will need to take this message to every community in South Africa.

Of course, the new leader will also have to continue the fight of the past decade to protect our constitution and save our democracy. Under Jacob Zuma’s ANC, our constitutional democracy has been under greater threat than ever before. And in many cases, the DA has been the thin blue line that has kept this threat at bay.

None of our battles with figures in the ANC have been personal. We have never fought to settle scores; only to preserve principles. Our six-year battle to obtain the Spy Tapes was not about Jacob Zuma. It was about the principle of equality before the law.

Our battle to have Menzi Simelane removed as national director of public prosecutions was about the principle of being fit and proper to run a crucial independent institution of democracy.

Our ongoing battle with SABC Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, is about the principle of respecting the findings of the public protector.

If a party is not built on values and if it does not fight for principles, then it is morally empty and on borrowed time. The people of South Africa have come to expect the DA to fight these fights, and it is a responsibility the new leader will have to take very seriously.

This is a tremendously exciting time to be involved in the DA.

The stakes are higher than ever before, but so are the rewards for our country. And the political ground is shifting beneath our feet – just look at the new DA student representative council at Fort Hare University.

If we carry this momentum through next year’s local government election, then 2019 could see a DA-led coalition government take over from the ANC.

And wouldn’t that be something?