A VIEW OF THE WEEK: It helps to be friends with Helen

In the heat of the 2024 general elections, the chairperson of the DA’s Federal Council, Helen Zille, bemoaned that many South Africans were voting along ethnic and tribal lines. And yet she sits at the head of her own tribe.

It makes sense that without a strong, forceful leader who can take the initiative and ask the uncomfortable questions, a political party will fail. The reality is also that the DA has not only benefited from this ethnic voting but has also actively worked to regain and retain it.

She may no longer be its main leader, but those close to the DA know that everything centres on Helen. She pulls the strings, with a lot of influence and assistance from other former leaders. Councillors rush to roll out the red carpet and hope she notices them. Others who disagree with her keep their feelings private, biding their time until they find a new opportunity or political home.

She has done a lot to build the party into the country’s second-largest, in large part by working through others. This is a circle of leaders who can do her bidding and be the face, while she moves the political chess pieces in the background.

So, it was interesting that one of her elects, current party leader John Steenhuisen, would this week pull out of the party’s leadership race just weeks before its elective conference. While it certainly makes headlines, it was neither a shock nor “ruthless” by Zille, as some have suggested.

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Steenhuisen has been shrouded in controversy over financial irregularities, a central target of fighting within the party, and seen by many as a pushover leader who is all too comfortable taking orders from former leaders and settling into a cushy ministerial post.

Helen and her party have shown their ruthless side before; this was not it.

There have been dozens of lower-ranked members who have been quickly and quietly axed, in the hope that it would not grab the attention it does when their political rivals do the same.

Who will replace John?

While tensions between Zille and Steenhuisen have been building for months, the question now moves to who will replace him.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, and Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi have all been suggested as possible candidates.

The challenge is one shared by most political parties in the country: a lack of competent leaders down the chain.

Two of the three mentioned come from the DA’s crown jewel of the Western Cape.

These leaders will first need to overcome the clouds of inequality and widespread crime in the province. Especially in the aftermath of a proposed wall to “separate” a major route in Cape Town from the poorer areas that surround it.

Only after that can they begin to show they care for anyone outside of a white demographic in a small pocket of the country.

The party has lost far too many competent and potentially impactful leaders in “all or nothing” power struggles, where battle lines have been drawn along relationships with Helen.

It should rather invest its energies in integrating and working with these leaders to strengthen the party, or in grooming new leaders who can lead a multicultural and deeply unequal country, than in trying to shoehorn favourites into positions that may do more harm than good to their image.

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