Durban - A Durban teenager is going where only few, if any, have gone before – challenging DA leader Helen Zille for the party’s top spot.
And even though Nicholas Farrell, 17, who is in matric at Clifton College, knows that his chances of unseating Zille at its Federal Congress in May are very slim, he believes it is time for the people inside the party to challenge her “autocratic” and “bully-ish” style of leadership.
Nicholas, who has been a DA member since he was 15 and is a member of the party’s eThekwini youth league executive, said he had been approached by various party members to run a protest campaign against Zille.
He did not want to name the members.
He believes Zille’s “iron grip” on the party has moved the DA away from its democratic principles and her alleged attacks on people who don’t agree with her have been harmful to the party.
“The main driving force behind why I want to stand against her is that her leadership style in the past two years has increasingly become autocratic and has become bully-ish to other people in the party and I think that comes about when you don’t have a challenge,” Nicholas said.
“The issue is that people don’t want to run against Helen Zille out of fear that their political career may be endangered like we have seen with other members of the party.”
Nicholas, who turns 18 a day before the DA’s Federal Congress on May 8, planned to request a nomination form this week to challenge Zille.
He has been a vocal critic of the party leader. Earlier this year he wrote an open letter to Zille calling on her not to stand for re-election for the party’s top spot.
“The party is packed with leadership, yet no one has stood against you for the leadership since 2007. How is this healthy for a democratic party?” he wrote. “Too often, if a member takes a stand against you their political career is endangered. No one will stand against you out of fear.
“We need to elect a leader who is truly representative of the people, someone who people can connect with and relate to,” he said. “I do not disagree with the fact that you have taken this party to new election result heights; however, we are nowhere near where we need to be to bring change to all the people of our Republic.”
Speaking to the Daily News, Nicholas said the DA was in desperate need of change and it was up to ordinary DA members to stand up against Zille.
“Every member has a responsibility to speak out on issues. I don’t want to be seen as a hero by doing this. I have always known that when you see injustice you must stand up against it and when you see things going against your ethos you must stand up against it. One person… can’t dictate the policy of the party and can’t make the party inaccessible for members and voters,” he said.
Nicholas, whose parents are DA voters and funders, said while they disagreed with the way in which he is challenging Zille, they supported his efforts. “They just want me to pass matric and get into university,” he chuckled.
Farrell said he knew that he was not going to win the election in May, but hoped his protest campaign would ignite a debate around a change in leadership.
He said his two top candidates for taking over the party were Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane.
James Selfe, chairman of the DA’s Federal Executive, said any person or any member of the party in good standing was allowed to make themselves available for election.
He said that once Nicholas put in a nomination form and produced a certificate of good financial standing he would be able to contest the federal election in May.
Selfe said that while he believed Nicholas was seeking attention, he was entitled to stand.
Daily News