FILE PICTURE: Mmusi Maimane, then leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) reacts in frustration in parliament back in 2016, under Zuma's presidency. Picture: EPA/NIC BOTHMA
Carl Niehaus, the spokesperson for the uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), took to Twitter to share an old clip of former president Jacob Zuma issuing a warning to former DA leader Mmusi Maimane about his possible fate if he remained in the party.
“I can tell you, they will take you out of that leadership of yours of the DA,” Zuma said at the time.
Niehaus tagged Maimane’s official account, telling him he “should have listened” to Zuma.
“He told you exactly what [the DA] was going to do to you,” he added.
Zuma and Maimane were not the best of friends during the former president’s second term, during which Maimane was the DA’s leader in parliament. Maimane’s 2015 speech in the National Assembly in which he referred to Zuma as a “broken man” presiding over a “broken country” is known as one of the defining moments of his political career.
READ MORE: Maimane’s future, race and losing votes – what the DA’s panel review says
While Maimane resigned from the DA rather than being removed as leader, this followed a report recommending that the party convenes an early congress “to allow for the election of a new leader”, also suggesting that Maimane should “consider” stepping down.
This after the DA lost roughly 400,000 votes in this year’s elections, the first since 1994 in which the party failed to grow.
The special review report, compiled by a panel consisting of former DA chief strategist Ryan Coetzee, former leader Tony Leon and Capitec Bank founder Michiel le Roux, called not only for Maimane to “consider” stepping down but for chairperson of the party’s federal council leading during the election campaign – James Selfe, as well as DA CEO Paul Boughey to do so too.
However, both Selfe and Boughey had already left the DA prior to the report’s release.
Selfe retired following 20 years as federal council chairperson, leading to the elections in which Helen Zille emerged victorious, a development that led directly to outgoing Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba’s resignation, and is believed to be the primary reason for Maimane and party stalwart Athol Trollip – who lost to Zille in the party’s federal council showdown – leaving too.
Boughey also resigned just days before the party’s federal council elections, saying he wanted to give the new federal council chairperson and the party’s leadership “the space to chart their own course”.
READ MORE: Maimane under fire from senior DA leaders over his ‘white privilege’ comments
Rumours have also been circulating about those within the party wanting Maimane to step down even before the elections. It was reported back in January that if the party didn’t grow beyond 22%, it was believed that Maimane’s detractors would seek to use this as a reason for his removal.
Maimane found himself on the wrong side of what they call the ‘1959 faction’ – a reference to the year Helen Suzman broke away from the United Party to form the Progressive Party – also known as the party’s “true liberals” or classical liberals.
This section of the DA does not believe in race-based policies, and butted heads with Maimane over this issue as well comments he made about white privilege at a DA rally in Soshanguve, Pretoria last year.
Prior to the DA’s current crisis, classical liberal think tank – the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) – launched a campaign to “save the opposition”, focusing on the DA alone, and are also believed to be among those who advocated for Maimane to step down. Zille joined the IRR as a senior research fellow, stepping down a few months later to rejoin politics and run for the role of federal council chairperson, and her victory is seen as a win for the party’s classical liberals and those who wanted Maimane gone.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.