Michel Muller
The conservative faction of the Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape took it in the teeth this week when DA MPL Athol Trollip was elected provincial party leader.
Trollip’s agenda is to expand the party in traditionally African areas and bring more blacks into DA structures.
His victory at the DA’s inaugural congress at a Fish river resort last weekend was over conservative and former National Party heavyweight Tertius Delport.
Addressing the conference, DA leader Tony Leon said the party was going through a phase of renewal that required “a thorough review, re-conceptualisation and recasting of our policy programme”.
He spoke about “the actual experience of our people; a concrete understanding of the problems that ordinary people face”. South Africa’s elite had become “strangely anaesthetised” to what he called a threatening menu of crises.
Trollip, a fluent Xhosa speaker, has come out strongly in favour of expanding the DA’s base of voters into traditionally African areas, echoing outgoing chairman Eddie Trent’s view that this was crucial for political success.
The final count of 115 votes to 92 in favour of Trollip is closer than some observers anticipated, though Delport pledged his support for the DA.
Trollip’s “new agenda” also advocates that people in the province become trilingual, especially public representatives and DA office bearers.