John Moodey was elected last weekend for the third time as leader of the Democratic Alliance in Gauteng. Moodey will lead the party for the next two years as it works on its strategy to unseat the ANC in the province.
The Mail & Guardian asked him how he planned to tackle this mammoth task.
Mail & Guardian: What does your election mean this time around for the DA in Gauteng? What are you going to do differently or improve on compared to your previous stints in the leader’s office?
John Moodey: The DA in Gauteng elected me to the position of leader because, given my experience and history, they believe that I am the best-qualified person to successfully lead the province into the 2014 elections. First, I have a strong executive, and I will be establishing a team of experts to advise the leadership team. I will therefore be able to focus on my responsibility of giving strategic direction, being the face and the voice of the DA in the province and also being able to lead and inspire our activists in the field.
M&G: DA leader Helen Zille has identified Gauteng as “the next frontier for the DA”, saying that the party has set its sights on winning the province in 2014.
How realistic is this ambition?
JM: Winning Gauteng is an ambitious yet achievable goal. I will be assessing our resource allocation in terms of finances as well as human capital. I will be prioritising our campaigns and will be distributing resources accordingly. I will not neglect our existing support base while doing so. As a strategic province, I will be lobbying for more financial resources from our national structure. We will be establishing training units in each constituency to develop a culture of continuous training and mentoring of our members in each branch. Our members and activists will be equipped with knowledge to be able to promote the DA brand and answer any questions regarding the DA.
M&G: You are starting with door-to-door campaigns. Surely you have done this before and it did not win you the province? What will you tell voters this time around?
JM: Leading on from the question above, we will do things differently. We will initiate meaningful campaigns that will fundamentally change the perception of the voters on the ground. We will be knocking on more doors and entering the homes of our prospective voters. We will be taking up and championing the issues that most affect our people and which ANC councillors have blatantly ignored. We will identify, attract and retain strong leaders in all communities who subscribe to our political philosophy and have the same interests at heart. They will be able to promote our brand. We will not tell people anything — we will show them that we have their best interests at heart. We will form locally based alliances with prospective supporters and voters and thus build an unstoppable force, come 2014.
M&G: To win control of Gauteng, you will need to significantly increase your vote in black communities. How are you planning to do this?
JM: Over the years, the DA brand has become very acceptable in the townships where our new voters will be coming from. We have consistently won seats from the ANC in the legislature and also took wards from it in the municipal elections held last year. We increased our vote in numerical terms in ANC wards in these elections; even more so in by-elections. The citizens of our beloved province are disillusioned with the ANC after 18 years of broken promises and have witnessed that where the DA governs there indeed is a better quality of service delivery. Voters in black communities are ready to give the DA a chance to demonstrate that it can govern better than the ANC in Gauteng, as it does in the Western Cape, which they see as a model of accountable, transparent and professional governance.
M&G: There is speculation inside the DA that party spokesperson Mmusi Maimane is likely to run as the candidate for premier ahead of the 2014 general elections. Are you aware of such speculation? Would you accept it if somebody else — Maimane, for example — ran as candidate for premier?
JM: I am a loyal and disciplined member of the DA. When I accepted my nomination for provincial leader I was aware of the fact that a premier would be elected later, closer to the 2014 elections.
I am focused on realising my campaign manifesto, that is, to deliver 1-million new voters and ultimately the governance of Gauteng to the DA. I will continue to perform my duties as leader to the best of my ability, irrespective of who the candidate for premier may be.