Leading the DA, in the midst of what can euphemistically be dubbed an identity crisis, is no easy task.

Whilst other parties loot and plunder with little to no consequence, Mmusi Maimane is being hauled over the coals for some of his ‘questionable’ dealings.

There’s the Claremount house debacle, and then there are the recent links to Steinhoff with regards the car he used ahead of the municipal elections in 2016.

Any link to Steinhoff at this stage is going to be seized upon by opposition parties, but what’s most damning about both of these reports is that the leaks seem to be coming from within the party itself.

In an editorial published earlier today, IOL believes this can only mean one thing:

The writing is on the wall for Mmusi Maimane…

The irony is that while the DA and Maimane were campaigning against corruption and state capture, he was driving around in a vehicle owned by a man who had almost single-handedly collapsed one of the largest South African conglomerates, wiping close to R12 billion from the Public Investment Corporation’s books.

The reports, on successive weekends, came with the precision of laser-guided missile strikes.

Anthony Molyneaux

Obviously this was co-ordinated from within the DA to cause maximum destruction, similar to the tactics used to dislodge former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, until she finally raised the white flag.

The DA is scheduled to hold a ­federal council meeting later this month, closer to the date a challenger might emerge for Maimane’s mantle…despite being the DA leader, Maimane is not really in charge of the party, and it’s only a matter of time before he is dispensed with.

You get the feeling that Maimane will go down swinging, though, at a time when the party really needs a show of unity.

In the wake of the Steinhoff car debacle, Maimane himself has ordered a probe into the allegations. Here’s Business Day:

Acting federal chair Thomas Walters said Maimane had called for the probe. He said the committee dealt with any concerns relating to resources and that it would do a factual check…

Walters said his personal view was that the allegations came from anonymous leaks with the aim of painting a particular picture, but that the best way of countering any “nefarious background dealings” was to get to the facts…

Some in the party believe the knives are out for the DA’s leader, who was the first to preside over a decline in the party’s electoral fortunes.

You don’t say.

It will be telling if something as banal as using a car leads to Maimane’s ousting, when you consider the unchecked criminality displayed by so many of this country’s top politicians.

That fact isn’t lost on Tom Eaton, who summed it up in his Business Day column yesterday:

If a sponsored car is enough to remove the leader of the opposition from office, but the theft of R1-trillion can’t budge the ANC from power, or, indeed, the looting of VBS bounces right off the EFF, then truly, our different parties are separated not by ideology but by light years. They are separate universes.

That will be hard for Maimane to stomach. Then again, he will also be familiar with the bit in Galatians about reaping what you sow. If you spend a decade insisting that any and all manifestations of patronage require harsh consequences, you can’t really be surprised when people believe you.