Drama may yet haunt DA’s federal congress

With the Democratic Alliance (DA) federal congress scheduled for early next month, plenty could emerge – but drama around spoilt ballot papers and unchanged leadership could bring unwanted results for the party in the 2024 general election.

The DA revealed it was on track to host its biggest yet congress with more than 2 000 delegates expected to attend at Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 1 and 2 April.

The party will elect its federal leader, federal chair and three deputy federal chairs at the conference.

Incumbent DA leader John Steenhuisen and former Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse are contesting for the federal leader post, while the veteran DA leader Helen Zille was expected to secure re-election as federal council chair.

Tshwane voting drama

But after being told by a lawyer its votes to elect a new speaker in the City of Tshwane was unlawful, the DA’s image may face serious damage.

The voting process in Tshwane was held by secret ballot and African Transformation Movement (ATM) councillor Mncedi Ndzwanana was elected as Tshwane council speaker, beating ActionSA’s Kholofelo Morodi by 105 to 37 votes.

A total of 69 votes were disregarded and marked spoilt by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) after DA councillors marked their ballots differently.

The party had instructed councillors to mark ballots with allocated numbers in order to identify which candidate they voted for.

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As a result, the IEC declared the 69 votes as spoilt ballots.

Political analyst Goodenough Mashego said the way the DA acted in Tshwane was damaging its claim to be democratic.

Mashego said spoiling a ballot was something done deliberately and the DA’s argument of not spoiling the ballot did not hold.

“They could have easily voted for an ActionSA candidate and done things the way members of municipality council always do,” he said.

“It has damaged their reputation as having ability to really work with other political parties because between them, ActionSA and other political parties, there was something happening.

“But now, no-one can really tell what they will do in parliament.”

Steps in anti-vaxx doctor

Meanwhile, another controversy haunts the party as it gave a welcome to a prominent British anti-vaxx doctor at the Western Cape Legislature on Wednesday.

The Western Cape Legislature’s deputy speaker, Beverley Schafer, had invited members of the National Assembly, National Council of Provinces and MPLs to listen to Dr Aseem Malhotra, who spoke on “unsafe and ineffective” vaccines.

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Malhotra, who confirmed in previous media reports he was vaccinated, had repeatedly called for the administering of Covid vaccinations to be stopped and claimed the jab “could be behind excess deaths from coronary artery disease”.

But Schafer said the conversation was on “ethical and evidence-based healthcare”, as part of her newly launched lunchtime lectures to “enhance interparty relationships” across all levels.

In the DA party ranks, members were concerned about the address and among the DA members who were seen with Malhotra, following his talk was Steenhuisen.

Zille and Steenhuisen’s different approach

Mashego said the DA was not careful with whom it associated itself and its conference next month would be a watershed moment.

“Zille is currently the chair of the party, which means she actually will go for re-election in that position and Steenhuisen will probably also go for re-election as the party’s leader,” Mashego said.

“I doubt that the DA would at this point in time install new leaders, who would need to still learn the ropes going into 2024. So they will elect the same people.”

Although they might do that, Mashego said Zille and Steenhuisen differed in their approach to what SA needed.

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Steenhuisen had more of the mindset which tended to regard the ANC as the big enemy, Mashego said.

The party he wants the DA to look like is the Freedom Front Plus (FF+).

But Zille believes the biggest enemy is not so much the ANC, but other factors.

So that’s why there is talk of a possible grand coalition led by Zille between the DA and parts of the ANC, he said.