The battle lines have been drawn in the official opposition’s Parliamentary leadership race with the DA’s chief spokeswoman Lindiwe Mazibuko confirming that she will oppose the incumbent Athol Trollip when it goes to a vote next month.
In a letter to the 77-strong caucus e-mailed late on Sunday, Mazibuko – who is understood to have the backing of national leader and Western Cape premier Helen Zille – argued that her team could capture the imagination of millions of South Africans “desperate for hope” at a time when the ruling ANC was in tatters. This could propel the DA into the position where it could credibly “challenge for power” in several provinces “and ultimately nationally”.
Mazibuko, 31, who, if successful, will become the first black leader of the opposition, confirmed in the letter that Wilmot James, the DA federal chairman, would make himself available for election as chairperson of the parliamentary caucus, taking him out of the race for parliamentary leader.
Mazibuko was due to call a press conference to formally announce the start of her campaign on Tuesday.
Trollip, 47, wrote a letter last week to the caucus – which will elect the parliamentary leader, the deputy chief whip and eight other whips on October 27 – confirming that he was seeking re-election. He said when he was elected leader of the caucus in 2009 “many of you didn’t really know me”.
He had accepted the post – held for nearly 10 years by now ambassador Tony Leon, who was both parliamentary and national leader – with humility “especially considering the fact that the position was one of a supporting role to the leader of our party who serves in another sphere of government”.
“This has, for the most part, been relatively easy to do and Helen (Zille) has been most supportive form the outset.”
But in an acknowledgement that the path had sometimes been rocky, he said:
“It would be remiss of me not to mention the fact that there were some extremely difficult administrative and management issues that did make my tenure rather complicated.”
“These culminated in a situation where we found ourselves almost completely denuded of professional support staff after the local government elections. I am, however, very proud to say that there has been a climatic change since the filling of certain critical posts has been effected.”
Ironically it was the local government election campaign in March-April this year which parachuted Mazibuko into the national spotlight as she appeared on posters across the nation – with Zille and ID leader Patricia de Lille – and also addressed rallies countrywide, many of them with Zille.
Trollip, who stood against Zille for the national leadership in 2006, played a noticeably low-key role in the campaign. He concentrated his energies on the Eastern Cape where he is provincial leader.
Mazibuko, elected to Parliament in 2009 after serving as a party official, hit the national headlines after ANC youth league president Julius Malema referred to her as Zille’s “tea-girl” and refused to appear on a television debate with her.
Trollip notably said he would continue to reform the communications strategies of the party if he were re-elected, which would suggest that Mazibuko may be relegated to the backbenches as she is currently communications chief.
Earlier this year she was moved from the telecommunications portfolio to rural development and land affairs spokeswoman.
Mazibuko said in her letter that she intended to nominate Watty Watson, the national council of provinces leader as DA chief whip in the national assembly.
Trollip has already said he would name the incumbent Ian Davidson.
Both Trollip and Mazibuko’s support KwaZulu Natal MP Sandy Kalyan for deputy chief whip – a position vacated by Mike Ellis, who left Parliament last week.
Trollip wants energy spokesman Sej Motau, a Gauteng MP, as caucus chairman. Earlier this year Trollip demoted James – who is also part of the black minority caucus of the party – from higher education and training spokesman to spokesman for basic education, which deals with schools rather than universities.
Significantly, Mazibuko used Zille’s terminology in her letter, referring to the need to “jointly realise our vision to create an open opportunity society for all in South Africa”.
She argued that the ruling ANC “is riddled with internal strife which affects service delivery in all three spheres of government”.
“At the same time, that party is gradually becoming more predatory, threatening the constitution… ”
Trollip said recent highlights of his leadership had been the election of 16 DA councillors in the former Transkei, winning 10 wards from the ANC in the Nelson Mandela Metropole and this month’s “fabulous victory” of the Democratic Students’ Organisation at the Nelson Mandela Metro University Student Representative Council elections. - Pretoria News