Zille denies being ‘common denominator’ in black people leaving the DA

Following her election as Democratic Alliance (DA) federal chairperson, former party leader Helen Zille denied having played a role in the departure of black leaders from the party, such as former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, former parliamentary speaker Lindiwe Mazibuko and outgoing Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, who announced his resignation earlier on Monday. 

During an interview on 702 with Eusebius McKaiser, Zille was asked if she is the “common denominator in so many black people leaving the party” and whether she is “embarrassed by these turn of events that your continued presence is occasioning”.

Zille denied having anything to do with the resignation of De Lille or Mazibuko and told McKaiser: “You have to look at the hundreds of black members and black leaders of the DA who are in their positions and doing their thing.”

She added that you “also have to look at every single one of those circumstances”.

“Patricia De Lille certainly did not leave because of any disagreement she and I had; on the contrary, I was on the record that she was treated unfairly and that I really disagreed with the way party handled the Patricia De Lille case,” Zille said.

She added that this was one of the factors that led to her throwing her hat in the ring.

As for Mazibuko, Zille said “she knew she was going to lose a caucus election, it’s as simple as that”.

“She got into the leadership of a caucus at mid-term; it was absolutely plain she was going to lose the next election after the next round. She herself entirely autonomously decided to go to Harvard; it had nothing to do with me and if people want to go and start their new life somewhere else they are very entitled to.

“Why I am brought into the picture I don’t know,” she added.

Mashaba stepped down at a media briefing on Monday, singling Zille out as the reason for his departure.

“The election of Zille stands in opposition with the people I represent and the majority of the South Africans,” he said.

He argued that Zille’s victory showed a triumph of “right-wing elements” in the party, something Zille denied, saying Mashaba was in fact to the right of her.

“Herman Mashaba has always been significantly to the right of me; when I was one of the people who was helping recruit Herman to the DA I said to my colleague, ‘He’s far to the right of us; he was president of the Free Market Foundation – I could almost say he was a free market fundamentalist.”

She added that he didn’t believe in social grants at the time, and that they decided to encourage his leadership in the DA despite this.

“Everyone agreed it was enough in the ballpark to recruit him and that he would be a fiery and strong supporter,” she said.

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