DA may fall to third position
POLITICAL parties have warned that the resignation of DA leader Mmusi Maimane has revealed friction in the party.
THE ANC said yesterday that his resignation had left it as the only party fighting for a non-racial country.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said that while they would have loved to focus on their programmes and leave the DA to fight their internal battles, they had been vindicated by the turn of events.
“Actually, what has come out of all of these things is a greater appreciation that the only party that is able and has the ability to drive forward the agenda of socio-economic transformation, dealing with non-racialism and creating a country where everyone, regardless of their skin colour, could call it home, is the ANC,” Mabe said.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said the resignation showed that transformation within the DA was not yet fully accepted.
“It shows that transformation there is not right when you look at the fact that they were told by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) who to remove and what to do, and the instruction for (Helen) Zille to go back to the DA came from them (IRR).
“We were not aware that the think tank was DA-aligned, and no one will ever take it seriously from now on,” Holomisa added.
He also said the sudden departure of Maimane was a serious setback for the opposition voice in the country.
He said Maimane and Herman Mashaba, who resigned on Monday as mayor of Joburg, were respected figures in the opposition sphere and had not been involved in scandals.
“Obviously the opposition will be somewhat weakened because those voices were respected in many communities, especially Mashaba and Maimane.
“So to lose them within a space of two days without a scandal, without committing a scandal is a blow, but I am sure they will soldier on,” said Holomisa.
Good leader Patricia de Lille said she had warned Maimane when she left the DA last year.
“I hate to say I told you so, but I am going to say it anyway. I am not claiming to be a sangoma but I warned Mmusi Maimane that if he didn’t stand on principle his party’s laptop boys would swallow him up and spit him out,” said De Lille.
She said the problem with Maimane was that none of his colleagues in the DA knew anything about principled leadership.
Political analysts said Maimane’s resignation meant the end of his career within the official opposition as there was no way he would contest the early conference.
Unisa Professor Somadoda Fikeni said he could see Maimane completely leaving the DA, which he had led from 2015.
“All I see is Maimane leaving after some time to form a party where they will be saying we are trying to continue with the vision that he started within the DA, which the DA no longer represent,” said Fikeni.
He said that for the DA to continue holding on to the official opposition position, it needed to find a way to attract more black voters.
“If that fails, it would become the third opposition, should there be a new party as well as the EFF contesting that second spot,” he said.
Daniel Silke said that he could not see the DA recovering white supporters who were said to have left the party and voted for the Freedom Front Plus, while it would continue to shed black supporters.
“It would battle on both sides (black and white voters) because Maimane represents the new support base that the party had hoped to attract while Athol Trollip represents more of a traditional support base of the DA,” he said.