DA rallies votes for eNCA poll to justify Steenhuisen’s Ukraine trip

In a WhatsApp communication seen by The Citizen, the Democratic Alliance (DA) hurriedly rallied its troops on Tuesday to influence an online poll by news channel eNCA asking whether party leader John Steenhuisen’s trip was necessary.

This is possibly how the DA leader’s trip achieved a 68% approval rating in the poll. Anecdotal evidence also points to a ramping up of supportive social media activity.

A growing number of South Africans have questioned the party leader’s optics endeavour to Ukraine.

Since landing in the warzone, the DA tweeted that its leader has met with the mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, and Governor Maksym Kozytskyi as part of his first day in Ukraine.

The DA later tweeted another report from its man on the ground.

Steenhuisen wrote: “I’ve seen where the missiles have landed, in medical facilities, in children’s playgrounds, and in shops. There have been severe casualties and civilian consequences in this war.”

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said that if the DA leader wanted to become a reporter, his trip to the war-torn country would be a solid debut.

“When the conflict started, I visited the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in South Africa to share our support for their challenge,” said Mashaba.

“But I fail to see the point of using donor funds to take a trip there when there are major issues that our own country is facing – and surely every cent spent by opposition parties should be towards getting the ANC out of government in 2024.”

The Citizen asked Federal chair Helen Zille whether this was how the DA spent donor funds on these kinds of trips, yet it could criticise the ANC for travelling to Cuba on taxpayer money.

Zille replied to the WhatsApp question with: “Huh???” A handful of DA public representatives were equally as surprised at the opposition mission to Ukraine.

A Gauteng representative said he was unsure of the trip’s relevance considering that there were critical issues on home soil that needed highlighting.

Another DA representative pointed out how former leader Mmusi Maimane was hauled over the coals for a trip to Australia during his tenure.

Political commentator and former DA national deputy executive director Russel Crystal said: “What the substantial difference, other than an increased personal media profile, the visit to Ukraine and not a ‘global problem’ is, is not clear.”

Crystal said the DA leader’s first statement announcing the “fact finding” visit demonstrated a tone and substance that he had already made up his mind on the Ukraine issue.

“It would be safe to presume that he is there to find the ‘facts’ that suit his already decided conclusion.”

Besides, Crystal added, a visit by the DA leader to DA-led Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni to investigate the proliferation of ongoing road disintegration would be a bit more productive to those cities’ blighted ratepayers.

At the time of going to press, the DA had not responded to The Citizen on which donor funds were used to fund the trip.

The Citizen also asked whether its leader flew economy or business class to Ukraine and what the total cost of the trip was. As soon as a response as received, it will be published.