George Matlala
A RACIAL war has broken out among DA leaders following a chaotic elections meeting aborted a fortnight ago in Gauteng, where the battle for control of the party’s biggest region ended in high drama.
The Sunday Independent has seen two letters in which DA Gauteng South region leader Dot Corrigan claims there were party leaders who used race to contest the party’s internal elections – a situation that partly led to the gathering descending into mayhem.
In her report to the party’s leadership, dated August 23, Corrigan warned against the use of the race card in the party’s internal elections, saying it would not help the DA dispel the perception that it was a “white party”.
The four-page document was sent to party leader Helen Zille, federal council chairman James Selfe and chief executive officer Jonathan Moakes.
This was after DA Gauteng legislator Khume Ramulifho squared up to the party’s City of Johannesburg councillor Cameron MacKenzie in a battle for the chairmanship of the crucial region at the municipality’s council building on August 20.
Ramulifho wanted to be the first black person to lead the powerful region.
“It is unfortunate that one of the five candidates who chose to take their campaign to the media, wanting to fight it out in the public eye, appears to be giving the message that if the DA is serious about transformation, then an elected white regional chair winning could indicate the opposite,” Corrigan says.
Evidence of racial tensions in the DA’s Gauteng South region comes hot on the heels of revelations by The Sunday Independent that the party recently appointed a team of executives to run its day-to-day affairs at its head office that includes not one black person.
The party has since denied this, saying that 58 percent of staff at the party’s head office in Cape Town, and 53 percent of national staff, were “previously disadvantaged” South Africans. The Sunday Independent report, though, was focused on executives.
Corrigan refuted claims that there was a sinister racial plot to steer the elections, arguing that the meeting collapsed because of “highly regrettable logistical problems”.
Issuing more ballot papers than the number of voting delegates and the method of voting were identified as two of the reasons for cancelling the meeting.
“I refute claims being made that these mistakes were intentional, that there was a sinister plot to keep one of the candidates from being elected,” Corrigan said. “The mistakes made were nothing more than organisational and logistical problems and while highly regrettable, that is all they are,” she added.
She also repeated her denial of a racial plot against any leader in her letter of apology, dated August 22, to the Gauteng South members. “It is most unfortunate the race card is being played,” she said.
Corrigan said the mistakes would not help the party’s fight against the perception that it was a white party.
“Fighting internal elections in the media and making internal elections about race does not advance our cause, but continues to fuel the ANC’s agenda of portraying us as a white party,” she said, adding that the DA needed to advance a position that “we see each other as people, not as black, white, coloured or Indian”.
Although Corrigan did not mention names, The Sunday Independent understands that she was accusing Ramulifho of using race to contest the elections.
When contacted she denied she was accusing Ramulifho of playing the race card to win elections.
“It is not clear who made these claims, as they are not named in the media,” she said.
She said her relationship with Ramulifho was good.
Ramulifho could not be reached for comment.
Trouble at the meeting started after a delegate asked whether they could vote for both the regional chair and deputy at the same time, as there was a concern, especially among black delegates, that if a regional chair was a black person, delegates would vote for a white vice-chair, Corrigan noted in the letter.
Some delegates walked out and went to sing outside when the convener, Janet Semple, DA Gauteng leader, was explaining why they had to vote for each position separately.
DA communication executive director Gavin Davids said that the problems at the Gauteng South meeting did not paint a picture of racial divisions in the region, but administrative mistakes.
“We are working to ensure that the same administrative mistakes are not made again, so that the outcome of the annual general meeting reflects the will of the voting delegates and is respected by all,” he said.