The power struggles within the ANC have been well documented, and Cyril Ramaphosa faces a challenging time going forward fending off the likes of Ace Magashule.

All isn’t exactly rosy within the DA, either, on the back of what some have called “a dismal showing at the polls”.

The party may have hung onto the Western Cape, but it lost around 4% of that provincial vote, failed to stop the ANC from cracking a majority in Gauteng, and saw around 500 000 voters nationally head elsewhere for a loss of close to 1,5%.

The DA’s federal executive (the party’s highest decision-making body) is meeting today to unpack what went wrong in Mmusi Maimane’s first election at the helm, although he is expected to dodge any bullets.

The same cannot be said for some of the other top brass – here’s City Press:

Heads are set to roll during tomorrow’s meeting, with targets on the backs of federal chairperson James Selfe [below], chief executive Paul Boughey, campaign manager Jonathan Moakes and the leader himself…

Maimane told City Press that the past year had been “tough” for the DA and that it had become clear that “disciplinary processes” must be sped up within the party.

This was in reference to the matter involving former Cape Town mayor and now Good party leader Patricia de Lille. The party suffered a series of embarrassing legal defeats, with the blame being placed on Selfe.

When asked by Talk Radio 702 on Friday whether Maimane would remain as the DA’s leader, Selfe said: “I don’t know. That will be up to the party to decide.”

Maimane has been criticised on a number of fronts, with many pointing to his decision to back former Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga as the premier candidate in Gauteng.

In that province, in particular, the DA fell well short of the mark:

“The man was tainted. The campaign was terribly bland. It did not animate anyone in the party or outside of it,” a Gauteng leader told City Press…

With the ANC coming in at almost 51% in Gauteng, some in the party believe that a stronger premier candidate would have brought the ANC to below 50%, in keeping with one of DA’s electoral objectives.

Selfe, mentioned earlier, seems the most likely to be ousted, with senior party members pointing to his ongoing legal woes with de Lille:

“There are a few people who will begin the fight at the federal executive, but they will probably go for James and Paul.

“There will be questions about their competence. My sense is that people feel there is nothing wrong with the leader or the vision; what is wrong is a lot of internal issues and things that are not properly managed. Think of the losses in court which James never accounted for.”

There is some talk of either Arthur Trollip or John Steenhuisen replacing Maimane, which would surely be another massive blunder by a party that seems determined to shoot itself in the foot.

When pressed, Trollip (pictured below with Maimane) rubbished those claims, saying he backed Maimane completely.

According to public relations strategist, Makhosini Mgitywa, getting rid of the incumbent DA leader would spell disaster for a party now caught up in an identity crisis.

He spoke with eNCA and made some very good points:

“The Democratic Alliance has a serious problem, it may very well be an existential crisis. We have a strand of people who think it’s ok to minimise the legacy and effects of apartheid and when they do that, they appeal to the base of the DA. Then you have a strand who says they don’t like apartheid but don’t like this BEE nonsense and they deny anything to do with white privilege…” said Mgitywa.

The third strand is your Mmusi Maimane and Phumzile van Damme who say there has to be some form of transformation. If you have a party that has a voter base that can be stolen by the Freedom Front plus and the same party is trying to appeal to black voters, that is a problem. Mmusi was always going to have a difficult job.”

“I hear people saying he may lose his job. If the DA had to do that, it will be a grave mistake because the DA does not have a Mmusi Maimane problem but Mmusi has a DA problem and I don’t know if they can get someone with Maimane’s cross-appeal..” added Mgitywa.

Given how poorly the ANC has governed these past 25 years, with an especially torrid time between the 2014 elections and now, seeing the country’s official opposition party shrink is a sign of how badly they’ve dropped the ball.

If they do end up booting their leader, rather than some of the party’s other under-fire senior members, then they really would have lost the plot.

Stranger things have happened, but I’d bet on Maimane being safe.

[sources:citypress&enca]