The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Eastern Cape leader, Athol Trollip, has entered the lists as the first formal contender for Tony Leon’s crown.
And at a media conference in Cape Town on Thursday to announce his candidacy, Trollip was careful to steer a course between the party’s liberal and conservative wings. Amid the groans of assembled journalists, he refused to commit himself on the hot issues of the death penalty and same-sex marriage.
”Our party offers its members individual choices, and I support the party position,” Trollip said.
The DA’s top job will be up for grabs at a conference on the first weekend of May at Gallagher Estate in Johannesburg, after Leon’s announcement late last year that he would relinquish the leadership.
Trollip, a member of the Eastern Cape legislature and provincial party spokesperson on health and public accounts, started his press conference in fluent isiXhosa.
”It’s a privilege and very important [to speak isiXhosa] if one wants to communicate and understand people. I’ve been at the forefront of initiatives to grow our party’s support in black communities, and will do so on a much wider scale if I’m elected to lead the DA.”
Asked whether it was not time for the DA to choose a leader of colour, he said: ”The time has come to stop choosing or not choosing somebody as a leader because of skin colour. I offer something different. There’s no doubt that [Leon’s] shoes will be difficult to fill, but I believe I can, while also bringing a new dimension to the leadership of our party.”
Trollip said he had spoken to other potential leadership candidates, including Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, who ”told me that she hasn’t decided yet whether to stand”.
Trollip said the next generation of South Africans was a key issue for him: ”We’ve already lost the 1976 generation; our country can’t afford to lose another. My own son is a Mandela child, who has just matriculated; I’m determined to do all in my power to bequeath to this generation a future that offers it hope and prosperity.
He said the DA already commanded the support of about two million voters, and he planned to lead an offensive ”that will accelerate the growth of our party and directly threaten ANC hegemony”.