Mmusi Maimane must form a new political party

DA leader Mmusi Maimane had finally stepped down – and not surprisingly: there was no way he could have remained in the party after his hero and friend, Herman Mashaba, had left the party and subsequently the mayorship of Johannesburg.

The writing was on the wall for Maimane. He had two choices – to either jump or be pushed and for him jumping was the obvious step to take under the circumstances.

He could not stay and betray Mashaba and fellow black leaders who were disillusioned with the DA refusal to change. He hailed Mashaba as a “hero” and a “friend” the day Mashaba stepped down. Mashaba had publicly proclaimed he agreed to become the Joburg mayor because he believed in Maimane’s vision.

Undoubtedly there is blood on the floor at Nkululeko House: a battle for the control of the DA. But losing Maimane and even Mashaba would cost the party dearly at the polls, including Johannesburg council reverting to the ANC rule.

Many black members would likely leave the party along with Maimane and Mashaba, leaving the DA to be run by white conservatives.

Judging by the delaying of Maimane’s resignation announcement from 1pm to 3pm, and then till even later, the behind-the-scenes discussions at Nkululeko House were difficult. Some executives might have tried to convince to Maimane change his mind. Too late.

Zille could never return to the DA leadership only to clean the toilet, as she claimed. She is there to sweep away Maimane and his ilk – a mandate given to her by the conservatives who voted her back.

Imagine an aproned Helen sitting on a tiny bench with a mop and a broom next to her, waiting to clean the toilet while down the corridor in an executive office, Maimane is rocking on high-back chair. Impossible, isn’t it?

The Zille many of us know will never take a back seat when she has been elevated to a hot seat. In fact, by design, the opposite was bound to prevail.

This week Steven Friedman correctly described the federal chair position as equivalent to that of the ANC secretary-general. In the ANC, Ace Magashule runs the party while his nemesis and the man whose presidency he never approved, Cyril Ramaphosa, runs the state.

So, Zille, like Ace, would be able to manipulate things to her advantage and take the party back into the hands of white conservatives, leaving Maimane as a powerless political minion.

Who would have stayed?

Make no mistake, Zille is a powerful woman. She burst into the political domain as a liberal but had since drifted into the conservative cocoon. In her new being she occasionally churned out shocking tweets about blacks and praising colonialism.

To her credit, Zille single-handedly changed the DA from a white party to become the only fairly racially mixed party in the country.

She recruited the likes of Lindiwe Mazibuko and Maimane, and lured veteran Patricia de Lille into the DA.

Unfortunately for Maimane, who grew up in Soweto, he is backed by a very weak black caucus – comprising mainly the black provincial leaders.

His future and that of others lies in establishing a breakaway party, which would eat away at the DA’s current support.

Eric Naki

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.