The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) new interim leader, John Steenhuisen says he will be fully committed to leading the party to victory. Steenhuisen was elected on Sunday by the party’s Federal Council during a meeting in Johannesburg.
He will lead the party until the Federal Congress in 2020. The election comes after the resignations of Mmusi Maimane and Athol Trollip shortly after Helen Zille was elected Federal Council Chairperson.
Steenhuisen addressed the media.
“May I start by saying how humbled I have been by the support shown by the party to elect me as the interim leader of this party. This is obviously a huge responsibility and as I committed to the Federal Council, I will dedicate every ounce of my fibre, my being and my energy to restoring our party to glory and taking us back on to the path to victory.”
Steenhuisen says the party is the only one that is fighting for a non-racial South Africa. He says the DA will focus on correcting the legacy of apartheid.
“We are in fact the only party that’s fighting for a truly non-racial SA to exist and we also believe – and I want to be explicit and clear here – that the DA believes the legacy of apartheid must be corrected through targeted redress. We are going to be a party that sees every South African regardless of their colour, their language, their culture and their geographic location as a person of true worth and limitless potential, not just as a demographic status.”
Meanwhile, the losing candidate in the DA’s election of its interim leader, Makashule Gana says his focus now is on the branches to prepare for the policy conference and Federal Congress in 2020.
Gana has congratulated Steenhuisen on his win.
“I’m quite happy with the work that we did as the campaign. Our campaign has achieved all the milestones that we set to achieve and the outcome is as it is. We congratulate Steenhuisen and we are going back to the branches because we have a task from the leadership that we need to launch our branches. We are going to launch our branches and we are going to go to the policy conference and the Federal Congress.”
