WATCH: John Steenhuisen reaches for moon

Newly elected Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen was channeling not only Star Trek mythology yesterday, but the whole imagery of the American space program, which eventually put a man on the moon in 1969.

Steenhuisen referred to the DA’s galactic ambitions to defeat the ANC and go into the Union Buildings as the ruling party in 2024, as its “moonshot”.

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But he went even further, taking the words US president John F Kennedy used in launching the moon program. Steenhuisen said the DA took on the moonshot “not because it is easy, but because it is hard”.

It certainly won’t be easy, not while the DA is still considered by many black people to be a white-dominated party.

That image will have been reinforced by the elections at yesterday’s DA congress, where the two most powerful positions – leader and federal chair – went to the incumbents, Steenhuisen and Helen Zille.

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An attempt by a black woman, Mpho Phalatse, to take the top spot in the DA not only failed but, according to the results of voting by delegates, Steenhuisen got a bigger mandate than in the past.

That, no matter how you look at it, will send the message that, for the DA, it is business as usual. The real test is whether Phalatse – and all she represents in terms of attracting black voters – will remain in the party under those conditions.

Old guard DA members and leaders have been muttering that she can “one day” be the leader of the party, but that, currently, she is “inexperienced”.

Steenhuisen made no bones about the fact the DA would fight the ANC-EFF “alliance” but singled out the EFF as “Public Enemy Number One”. He is to approach “like-minded” parties for his moon mission. It remains to be see, though, whether this Eagle will ever land…

WATCH: John Steenhuisen victory speech

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