DA shoots itself in the foot, again

During an interview with Radio 702 this past week, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille was asked to weigh in on former DA leader Tony Leon’s controversial assertion that erstwhile DA leader Mmusi Maimane was “an experiment gone wrong”.

She said all the right things, including that her own tenure as party leader was experimental as was Maimane’s but that “no human being is ever an experiment”.

In her praise of Maimane, she mentioned how many academic degrees he possessed and the third masters degree he was studying towards.

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The emphasis on Maimane’s qualifications was quite surprising because in the DA, there has never been emphasis on academic qualifications before, only on competence.

Zille’s chosen angle to praise Maimane for his academic qualifications stood out because it is in the same week that in her position as Federal Council chair, she said the party regarded “in serious light” the claim by suspended Western Cape MEC for transport Bonginkosi Madikizela that he falsely included a degree that he does not have in his CV.

On the surface of it, there is no contradiction in Zille’s high regard for Maimane’s many degrees and the “serious light” view of Madikizela’s false claim.

The DA can and will claim the furore is not about him not having a degree or not that they are viewing in serious light, it is the dishonesty in him claiming to have the degree.

The swiftness with which Madikizela was suspended by premier Alan Winde after his dishonesty was made public gave much weight to the claim that the timing of the exposure of the dishonesty is very questionable.

Chances are that had Madikizela not applied to become mayor of Cape Town, his dishonesty would never have been made public knowledge. So it is strictly not to encourage honesty within the DA that they are going after Madikizela, but rather to remove him from running for mayor.

The DA has unfortunately made a habit of shooting itself in the foot when it comes to the handling of its black leadership performance within the party.

Going as far back as Lindiwe Mazibuko – who is so highly academically qualified that’s what she left the party to pursue at Harvard – the party has always been seen to be eating its young when it comes to black leadership.

It doesn’t help that current party leader John Steenhuisen was in the news before his election for not possessing a post-matric qualification. Yes, a degree is not a requirement in politics. Like Steenhuisen once said, “you don’t need a degree to serve the people. I’ve seen people with PhD’s steal from the poor”.

Which is all good and fair because he has never tried to pass himself off as being more academically qualified than he is but, in light of Zille’s praise of Maimane’s academic qualifications when he was considered for party leader, isn’t it time the DA stopped pussyfooting around the issue and decide what a degree means in the CV of their leaders applying for jobs.

Without that clarity, when a Natasha Mazzone is implicated in something similar to what Madikizela admitted to, as she has indeed been implicated, people will demand the same swiftness in dealing with her (suspension from her post) as was done in the Madikizela case.