Sailing serenely from her DA congress triumph, where she won 80% of the votes for the DA leadership, Helen Zille ran straight into heavy waters.
Zille faced a threatened eighth attempt to remove her as Cape Town mayor, with suggestions that some minority parties in her ruling council coalition were planning a vote of no-confidence. Before her election, Independent Democrats (ID) mayoral council member Simon Grindrod said Cape Town needed full-time leadership.
Zille brushed off the the rumours, saying she refused to search for ghosts and believed the coalition was strong. She said she no longer dealt with Grindrod privately, to prevent conflict between public and private discussions and deals.
She had learnt it was risky to forge alliances with one party — such as the ID — as it could then hold the coalition to ransom. The threat of a no-confidence vote — suggested for May 30 — appears to have ebbed.
Western Cape leader Theuns Botha is also alleged to have said that he would not support her as leader if she lost Cape Town because of her dual role as national leader and mayor. He denied making the remarks, but it is an open secret in the party that he is unhappy with her leadership. Zille said only that she had received his backing at a ‘Friends of Tony [Leon]†banquet last Friday night.
And, in another development, liberal English-speaking councillor Pat Hill has denied being behind an SMS blitz on prominent DA Afrikaners declaring that Zille would be ‘a nail in the Afrikaner’s coffinâ€. A forensic investigation has been launched to establish the origin of the messages.
Pouring oil on choppy waters, Zille has, so far, gone out of her way to mollify what one insider describes as the ‘right-wing dinosaurs†in DA ranks. Seen at the weekend congress were Rosier de Ville, a former Conservative Party stalwart and former Freedom Front MP, and former National Party MEC Mark Wylie — the latter wearing a Helen Zille sticker. Other conservatives and open Zille supporters included Sakkie Pretorius, a National Party organiser under PW Botha and now Cape Town councillor.
Zille is understood to have won the backing of most conservatives, in the teeth of Botha’s frantic canvassing against her.
Zille, who spoke perfect Afrikaans and isiXhosa during her acceptance speech, said it was critical for the party to retain its existing constituency, including Afrikaans-speakers. But it had to attract black South Africans, a task she acknowledged was the politics of the ‘long haulâ€. The band of supporters who led her into the congress hall were predominantly black and coloured.
Despite her overtures to the right, there will undoubtedly be a major change in leadership style. While praising Leon for raising the party’s electoral support from 1,7% to over 12% and being prepared to confront ‘saint†Nelson Mandela as opposition leader, she also alluded to whites who used repartee to put down people of other cultures.
‘It’s very funny when you get used to it … it is not meant to hurt at all. But we have to understand that this is very culturally distinct,†said Zille, who speaks English and German and is married to an Afrikaner. People outside [white] culture feel ‘deeply hurt and alienated by that.â€
It was important to hear ‘what we say through other people’s earsâ€, which meant learning African languages.
The DA meets on May 16 to elect a new parliamentary leader, chief whip, deputy chief whip, caucus leader, deputy caucus leader and various whips in the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces.
Former National Party minister Tertius Delport now looks unlikely to lead the parliamentary party after losing the chairmanship of the federal legal commission to Sheila Camerer by 44 votes to 47 at the weekend. Sandra Botha, a former caucus chairperson and now a National Assembly chairperson, looks better placed, as she comes from a strong liberal background as well as a solid Afrikaans-speaking constituency in the Free State.
Frontrunner to replace Douglas Gibson as chief whip is former Gauteng leader Ian Davidson, with Mike Ellis, currently deputy chief whip, also in the race. Calling for black parliamentary leadership, federal chairperson Joe Seremane has also raised the name of National Council of Provinces MP Motlatjo Tshetjeng.
Seremane said he would not be standing for positions in Parliament, but added that he was concerned that five black MPs crossed the floor in 2005.
A senior party source said Zille — apparently furious that Delport was not re-elected legal commission chairperson — wants him as parliamentary leader. That would rule out party CE Ryan Coetzee.
Nevertheless, such an arrangement would produce a marketable ‘rainbow troikaâ€: Zille as national leader, Botha as parliamentary leader and Seremane as second in the party heirarchy.