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Over the weekend, the DA wrapped up its elective congress, with John Steenhuisen and Helen Zille emerging as two of the big winners.

Steenhuisen officially became the party’s federal leader, crushing challenger Mbali Ntuli with more than 80% of the votes.

Zille was re-elected as federal council chairperson, which is the party’s second most powerful position.

With much of the process taking place behind closed doors (and virtually), none of the rumoured infighting spilt into the public arena, but the results themselves are rather telling.

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga spoke with TimesLIVE about what it could mean for the future of the DA:

[He] said Steenhuisen’s win was likely to result in a loss of party support from among black communities and from other constituencies who did not approve of the liberal conservatism narrative associated with him and Zille…

“The reality of the cost of that, you see, you win overwhelmingly by promising people to reinstate the party to where it ought to be and, after winning, you realise that, yes, you won within your own party, but within the nation how do you locate this thing?” Mathekga said…

“I mean, if you take the margin of Steenhuisen to mean ‘yes, I’ve won the referendum to make the party right-wing’, what are you going to do in the election as well? Because how many right-wingers can you really find in SA to grow and win by majority?” he added.

Whilst the right-winger quip may be a stretch, there’s no doubt that for the party to grow, it needs to court voters of colour.

The DA should also be concerned about Mmusi Maimane and Herman Mashaba’s political endeavours, which could draw additional voters from the party in next year’s local government election.

With some of its recent public statements, the DA seems most intent on trying to win back the voters that jumped ship last election and started supporting the Freedom Front Plus.

Analyst Levy Ndou concurs:

“The boldness of the DA in rejecting affirmative action, in rejecting BEE, is a slap in the face of the black people who have been disadvantaged in the past. It sends a message that we don’t want you to catch us. So they must be able to articulate this to the electorate,” Ndou said.

Analyst Rendani Ralinala went as far to say that the DA could lose its title as South Africa’s official opposition party:

“They must forget it, because if you want to be an official opposition in SA political landscape it is important that you must attract a section of the black vote. Now at the rate things are going … they are definitely going to lose the whole black vote,” Ralinala said.

Not just the black vote, Rendani.

Steenhuisen has been dealing with claims that his appointment will alienate black voters for some time, and hit back in typically bombastic style, calling them “fanciful nonsense” and saying “the opposite is true”.

South Africa needs a strong, flourishing opposition party, because this keeps the ruling party on its toes and worried about being stung for any failings in upcoming elections.

After years of the DA painting itself as a party for all, it has returned to majority white leadership, including a woman who has used her Twitter account to stir up image-damaging controversy after controversy.

As Stephen Grootes puts it, “the decisions the DA made at the weekend could weaken the party and our democracy”.

[source:timeslive]