Now that John Steenhuisen has done the right thing to step aside from the leadership race for the DA – he didn’t have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, from the position – there has been a tornado of speculation about what happens next.
And, although one could accuse her of having a personal axe to grind against both Steenhuisen and the party – after he defeated her in a race for the leadership in 2020 – Mbali Ntuli has made some telling observations about the party.
The DA is very thin when it comes to leaders.
Not many ordinary South Africans can identify party leaders apart from Helen Zille, Steenhuisen, Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis or Chris Pappas, mayor of uMgeni.
And, although she doesn’t say so, they are all white. Race has been an issue in the DA since that 2020 leadership tussle, when the party was at an inflexion point and could have won over many potential black voters ahead, as the country imploded.
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Yet, Steenhuisen’s landslide 80% vote in that contest showed many non-whites who were unhappy with the ANC that the DA didn’t appear ready for change.
Since then, of course, even the coloured community voters, once the mainstay of the DA in places like the Western Cape, have also felt like second-class citizens, causing them to migrate in significant numbers to Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance.
The DA has, ironically, lost conservative white voters who believed it is too “socialist” and aligned with the policies of its ANC partner in the government of national unity.
With all that, there must be a significant chance that Steenhuisen’s successor will preside over the final demise of the DA.
That, as we have said before, would be a tragedy for the country, because, at its best, the DA demonstrates how a country should be run.
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