DA head of policy quits as party readies for federal congress
DA policy chief Gwen Ngwenya has announced her resignation with a week to go before the official opposition party’s federal congress kicks off.
The DA would use its national congress to discuss and reaffirm policies aimed at taking the country forward, the party said.
Scheduled to take place at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand from April 1 to 2, and with more than 2,000 delegates expected to attend, the party will also elect its federal leader, federal chair and three deputy federal chairs.
Ngwenya took to social media yesterday, saying she had accepted a role to lead Airbnb’s policy and legislative activities in the Middle East and Africa.
DA federal council chair Helen Zille thanked Ngwenya for the many contributions and deep insights she had brought to the DA’s policy portfolio.
DA MP Mathew Cuthbert, the party’s spokesperson on trade and industry, said he had been asked by Zille to hold the fort temporarily on policy discussions.
Political parties including the governing ANC and EFF have often lashed out at DA policies, dismissing them as counter-transformative, to which Cuthbert does not take kindly.
“I am of the view that other political parties should concern themselves with their own policy development process rather than that of the DA,” Cuthbert said.
“The question is rather whether our policies resonate with ordinary South Africans and I believe that they do.”
The contentious issue of race has been a thorn in the DA’s side for years and resulted in the exodus of several black leaders who cited racism as their main reason for leaving.
DA leader John Steenhuisen has said race-based legislation has deepened the divide between rich and poor and led to “every single metric in the country moving in the wrong direction”.
Nelson Mandela University political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast said race had always been a “central way of examining things within the body politic of this country and within the DA”.
While the DA espoused a policy of nonracialism, it looked like the race issue was still embedded in the party, Breakfast said.
He said the DA had always been characterised by two factions — a faction of black leaders advocating for race-inspired policies and those espousing nonracialism.
Cuthbert said while the congress would afford delegates an opportunity to put forward new policy proposals, “these will have to be fleshed out by the federal council and the federal policy unit thereafter and either incorporated into the existing macro policies or as stand-alone policies of their own”.