DA provincial power struggle

Helen Zille gives the key note address at the Democratic Alliance Gauteng Provincial congress held in Boksburg on Saturday. Picture: Timothy Bernard 22.11.2014

Helen Zille gives the key note address at the Democratic Alliance Gauteng Provincial congress held in Boksburg on Saturday. Picture: Timothy Bernard 22.11.2014

Published Nov 23, 2014

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Johannesburg - Provincial leaders of the DA, envious of the power wielded by the party’s Western Cape caucus, are pinning their hopes on constitutional amendments giving them greater influence in the day-to-day running of the party.

Informal discussions among leaders from Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are understood to have begun, centring on how to influence or tweak existing policies and hone the party’s campaigning and messaging to appeal to non-traditional bases of the party.

Such issues would include but not be limited to where the party’s head office should be based, with the aim of getting “fresh ways of thinking” in formulating party strategy.

The moves come as the DA sets its sights on winning major municipalities across the country during the 2016 local government elections, and after improved performances by the party in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and in major metros in the Eastern Cape.

The DA remains dominant in the Western Cape where it runs the Cape Town municipality and where the party’s leader, Helen Zille, is the premier.

The DA’s constitution, in its current form, makes provision for representation proportional to the number of votes provinces get on both its federal council and at national congresses.

But this is not the case on the party’s highest decision-making body between federal council sittings – its federal executive where, irrespective of size, each province is represented by a single provincial leader.

The Sunday Independent spoke to several leaders from Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal who suggested amendments to the party’s constitution could gain momentum at next year’s federal congress.

Re-elected Gauteng DA leader, John Moodey, said while the province had previously been relatively influential, in part due to its ability to attract funding, this could be enhanced because of its increasing pull at the polls.

The province, which already runs the Midvaal Municipality, also hopes to win in Tshwane, Joburg and Ekurhuleni come 2016.

Moodey said he would propose a resolution at next year’s national congress for the province to “claim its space in terms of ratio (and) number of votes” at federal executive level.

“It’s exceptionally unfair if a province brings in huge numbers in terms of both votes and funding but has one person as provincial leader on the federal executive (when there is) one person for other provinces, no matter how small the provinces are,” he said.

A grouping of leaders who see themselves as “progressive” because they would like more openness in decision-making processes than in the current climate could also call for the head office to move north.

The DA’s headquarters have been based in Cape Town, but some provinces have expressed concern that it is costly, among other problems, for leaders from other parts of the country to travel to the city for meetings.

Another consideration would be that the party has reached near-saturation in its so-called traditional support base, which is closely mirrored by the demographics of the Western Cape.

In Gauteng, for example, Moodey said that while it would be shortsighted to neglect the party’s traditional base of whites, coloured and Indians, the party’s greatest potential for growth was among black voters, where the party increased its vote from 3 percent to 10 percent in the province.

Federal chairman James Selfe said a federal executive meeting this week had approved the composition of the party’s constitutional review committee, which would request proposals imminently for next year’s congress.

KwaZulu-Natal is already being hailed as a potential kingmaker if such a contest comes to pass.

But the DA provincial leader, Sizwe Mchunu, said these talks were not taking place in the province.

The province will hold its congress in February next year.

Sunday Independent

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