The Democratic Alliance (DA) has dismissed media reports that senior leaders are said to be keen on getting Western Cape Premier Helen Zille to lead a new party.
It was reported at the weekend that senior DA members had been holding consultations over their disgruntlement about the direction the party is taking under the leadership of Mmusi Maimane.
The DA’s National spokesperson Refiloe Ntsekhe says that with a year to go until the 2019 General Elections there have been no discussions of leaders planning to break away from the political party.
“I think it is a fictitious story. We came out of Congress and we deliberated on some issues and those were out in our manifesto going into the 2019 elections. I don’t think anybody is going anywhere. I just see this as cheap journalism.”
As such, the reports in the City Press today are nothing more than rumours and gossip.
These fictitious ‘senior leaders’ are not even mentioned once in the story but comments from the CEO of a think tank seek to give these rumours importance. – @RefiloeNtsekhe
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) May 27, 2018
“What I find concerning is saying people are leaving – why don’t they mention who these people are that they claim are leaving instead of choosing an external person talking about our organisation,” says Ntsekhe.
Reports suggested that South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) CEO Frans Cronje had been approached for advice on how to go about forming a new political party.
But, Ntsekhe says since the DA’s Congress in April, the party has been united.
“I want to turn this around. I think people call the race and diversity issues a problem in the DA. I find this an organization that has the guts to say we have adopted diversity as a value in April at Congress and now we are encouraging conversations around this issue.”
“No other political party has had the guts to deal with these issues to say where are we on diversity as an organization? So I don’t think it is negative, it is good robust debates in a liberal organization,” adds Ntsekhe.
