Democratic Alliance federal council chairperson Helen Zille. (Marco Longari/AFP)
It’s almost guaranteed Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen and the matriarch of the party, federal council chairperson Helen Zille, will retain their positions when the party convenes for its federal congress this weekend.
Although these two names were aligned since before the resignation of Mmusi Maimane, insiders say the alliance has been one of convenience. Zille, they say, has been running the party with an iron fist, while Steenhuisen led in her shadow.
Pundits and DA insiders alike have observed how the party has retreated to its traditional constituency under the leadership of Zille and Steenhuisen. While Steenhuisen has been the face of the party, making public appearances to claw back the voters, Zille has been at the helm, steering the ship.
This, insiders say, is evident because the party has been without a chief executive for two years.
In 2019, shortly after the DA failed to increase its vote percentage at national elections, chief executive Paul Boughey resigned alongside then leader Maimane and Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip.
Boughey was replaced by Simon Dickson in June the following year but months later he quietly left. With no chief executive, Zille took on the job, making some insiders uneasy.
One high-ranking DA leader who spoke to the Mail & Guardian on condition of anonymity said there had not been eagerness on the part of the leaders charged with the administration to fill in that position, alluding to the fact that this was to their benefit. The party insider said the vacancy had allowed Zille to take command of the party’s operations.
“The consequence to the party is twofold. One, there is no longer a separation between the political side and professional staffing side that was always the job of the CEO,” they said. “The CEO’s role was to manage that interface. That is managed by Helen as the elected office bearer. That means she is now acting in both the chair of the federal council as well as CEO, which is meant to report to the federal council. This means she is managing herself.
“Now, you effectively have Helen as the manager and managee and, when things go wrong, there is no accountability.”
The insider said the Swellendam municipality by-election was a prime example of the lack of accountability. It saw the ANC winning a ward historically held by the DA, which resulted in the ANC increasing its council seats in the municipality.
Zille has also been at loggerheads with some councillors in the region, who have taken the party to the courts, challenging the termination of their membership. It’s unclear whether the loss of the ward was a result of the feud.
“Ordinarily, the chairperson of council would be writing to the CEO requesting reasons why this happened and there would be accountability. Now, there can’t be any accountability because the person who is meant to account is the one who is holding both offices,” the party source said.
Another insider said the departure of the chief executive had also driven away staff at the party’s head office.
“You have Zille managing a new group of staff, who are very much dependent on her leadership, because everyone else who had institutional memory has run away.”
The second insider said there were no explicit provisions which would suggest that Zille was violating the party’s constitution.
“What it is, is an implicit contradiction because nowhere else in the organisation do we have someone who is meant to be a line of authority also [being] a person doing the actual work, for which they are meant to be accountable. That is the strangest part of this particular dynamic and one could say that is a breach of the constitution because that principle of accountability goes out the window,” they said.
According to the DA’s constitution, the federal council chair is a full-time position charged with the organisation and administration of the party, and developing and maintaining a high degree of efficiency. The council chairperson also implements decisions of the federal council and the federal executive, working closely with the federal leader, the federal chairperson, the federal chairperson of finance and the chief executive.
They perform other functions and duties and exercise powers assigned to them within the provisions of the constitution, by the federal leader, the federal council and the federal executive and have the power to delegate any of these powers to the chief executive or other appropriate person.
A third DA insider said there was a provision which allowed for the federal council chair to step in when the chief executive position was vacant, but added that they feared Zille was centralising power.
“It’s like having a mayor and the city manager be one person. In a normal company, the CEO is very cardinal so you can’t have that type of vacancy be open for so long, especially in an election year, so the question is why is this position vacant for so long, especially considering how important this election is,” they said.
Political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast said he believed the two DA leaders could work well together.
He said when Maimane became DA leader, it appeared there was an arrangement whereby Zille would pull the strings behind closed doors. But Maimane deviated from this and failed to pitch a message that resonated with the DA’s traditional base.
“Zille came back into the picture because of the poor performance of the party. Helen provides strategic leadership. I don’t think there has been tension between Zille and Steenhuisen,” he said.
Breakfast added that he did not think Zille was thirsty for power.
“She has been there, done that but she has been put there strategically because Steenhuisen doesn’t have a strategic record of being a leader.”