Some political analysts say the Democratic Alliance (DA) should maintain political cohesion as four senior party officials gear up to compete to succeed James Selfe as the chairperson of the federal council. They include former party leader and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille.
In June Selfe announced that he would step down after holding the position for two decades.
The federal council elections will be held later in October. The party is appealing for constructive campaigning.
Political analyst Keith Gottschalk says it will be interesting to see how the DA will manage this important contest.
“Earlier, Helen Zille advanced the careers of Lindi Mazibuko, of Mamphela Ramapele and of Patricia de Lille and none of those stories had happy endings. So clearly, Helen Zille and Mmusi Maimane will need to negotiate very seriously very early on to ensure a working relationship between them.”
DA leader Maimane says the party will decide who should take the highly-contested position.
“Athol Trollip is another; Mike Waters, Thomas Walters. These are candidates that will stand. Let them stand; let the delegates decide what kind of future they want. It’s an important position in the organisation and I think the people of the DA will pronounce themselves at the federal council. I’m not at all going to pronounce on the candidature of either of the candidates.”
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