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Maimane to hold public dialogues with ordinary citizens

Mmusi Maimane
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Former Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane says they will be holding public dialogues with ordinary South Africans in the next three months to hear their views on what future they want. Although Maimane also says he has no plans to start a new political party,  the former democrat has made it clear that he intends remaining in politics, working to spark a citizen-led movement to hold political parties accountable to the electorate.

Speaking to SABC News Maimane says they want a movement that will usher a new change in the county’s political landscape.

“There are 48 political parties in this country so I think 49 less than ideal. What we need is a system that will allow accountability to work better,” says Maimane.

Maimane left the DA in October saying the party does not serve the interest of all South Africans.  Other leaders that left the DA during the same period included Herman Mashaba and Athol Trollip.

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In the wide-ranging interview, Mmusi Maimane also came out to strongly against racial politics in South Africa.

Maimane quit the DA after Helen Zille was elected chairperson of the party’s federal council. He says diversity is an important issue in South Africa.

“I didn’t go out to say what was white must now be black. I went out to say I wanted to build a diverse organisation that’s why I worked hard to diversify the benches in Parliament, that’s why I worked hard that in all the events that we did that’s what we sought to do. Still to this day, I don’t think that the war that’s being waged in our politics should be black parties versus white parties, that’s regressive when you want to say you want an organisation to be transformed. It should be a fight that’s fought by black and white people.”

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