Durban - As the Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal prepares to elect a new provincial leader on Saturday, two of those contesting the position say they are gunning for municipalities governed by the ANC and IFP in the upcoming local government elections.
The party in the province is set to have a new provincial following the decision by the incumbent provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango not to run for a third term as its leader in KwaZulu-Natal.
Mncwango’s tenure comes to an end almost six years after he first became provincial leader in April 2015 at a provincial congress in which he beat then DA provincial leader Sizwe Mchunu, now an ANC member, by seven votes.
In February 2018, Mncwango retained his position as provincial leader after receiving 347 votes to beat Emmanuel Mhlongo who only amassed 151 votes at the party congress held at Durban’s Olive Convention Centre auditorium.
This time around, he will not be contesting after saying two terms as provincial leader were sufficient.
This has left the door for a three-way battle for the party’s top leadership post in the province.
The party’s leader in eThekwini Municipality, Nicole Graham, is among those who have thrown their names in the ring to become the party’s newest provincial leader while the two other candidates are Francois Rodgers, DA chief whip in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, and Graham’s deputy as caucus leader in eThekwini Emmanuel Mhlongo.
Graham, who is seen by some within the party as the frontrunner by virtue of her leading the opposition in one of the biggest metros in the country, said that among their plans was to regain ground lost to the IFP in the province.
“The DA, by far, has the most compelling message for South Africans as it is a party of hope, of opportunity, of freedom and that is so much more than any other political party can offer. We just need to ensure people understand it in a way that is relevant to their lives and their circumstances,” he said.
There have been some of the party’s policy decisions, taken at national level, that have been the subject of criticism such as the redress policy which has rejected race as a proxy for disadvantage.
“Provincial structures of the party don’t decide policy, so certainly we are looking at policies that have been decided at the national level so it is not something which is in my purview. I supported the idea of rejecting race as a proxy for disadvantage and I don’t plan to use this congress to re-prosecute that argument,” said Graham.
Rodgers said their main focus was on the local government election and these elections would have no bearing on the official opposition status, that they lost to the IFP in 2019 as that was for the general election.
Contesting to become Mergan Chetty’s successor as deputy provincial leader are Christopher Pappas, DA member of the provincial legislature, Hlengiwe Shozi, one of the DA’s councillors in eThekwini, and Samier Singh also of the DA in eThekwini.
Going up for the party’s provincial chairperson position are Dean Macpherson, who is currently a member of Parliament in the National Assembly, and Bongumusa Nhlabathi, the current leader of the DA in the uMgungundlovu District Municipality.
The most contested position is that of deputy provincial chairperson which has six candidates contesting the three deputy chairperson positions.
Political Bureau