In this file photo, DA interim leader John Steenhuisen addresses the Cape Town Press Club on over the party’s leadership crisis after the resignation of their leaders in Cape Town. Photo: ESA ALEXANDER/SUNDAY TIMES
Steenhuisen and Meyer have inside tracks in DA leadership election
The DA’s interim leadership battle enters its final round.
In this file photo, DA interim leader John Steenhuisen addresses the Cape Town Press Club on over the party’s leadership crisis after the resignation of their leaders in Cape Town. Photo: ESA ALEXANDER/SUNDAY TIMES
DA parliamentary leader John Steenhuisen is expected to win the race to become his party’s interim leader, while Western Cape MEC for agriculture Dr Ivan Meyer is the odds-on favourite to be elected interim DA federal chairperson.
Neither will have it all his own way in the election, which will be held on Sunday during a meeting of the roughly 150 members of the DA federal council in Johannesburg. The interim leader and interim federal chairperson will fill the positions – respectively left vacant by the resignations of Mmusi Maimane and Athol Trollip – only until April, when delegates to the DA federal congress will elect a leadership for the party.
Ivan Meyer, federal chairperson favourite
Meyer, who is currently deputy federal chairperson of the DA, will face two challengers in the race for the largely ceremonial chairperson position. They are Dr Nomafrench Mbombo, Western Cape MEC for Health and current leader of the DA Women’s Network (DAWN), and Khume Ramulifho, member of the Gauteng legislature and the DA’s spokesperson on education in Gauteng.
Steenhuisen will be opposed in the interim leadership race by DA member of the Gauteng legislature and former DA Youth leader Makashule Gana. The third nominee, Western Cape DA leader Bonginkosi Madikizela, withdrew from the race earlier this week citing by-election commitments in his home province.
The results of those three by-elections, which took place in predominantly coloured wards on Wednesday, shows the uphill task ahead for whoever emerges victorious in either of Sunday’s contests. The DA held two wards in Cape Town but lost a ward up the West Coast, bleeding support in all directions.
Recent by-election results
The ANC took Matzikama ward 4 (Vredendal North, which was an ANC stronghold before the DA won it in 2016) off the DA. The ANC candidate, well-known Khoisan traditional leader Cecil le Fleur, took 1 145 votes against 842 votes for the DA, 110 for Good, 60 for the Khoisan Heavenly Party, 28 for the ACDP and 27 for the EFF.
The swing against the DA since 2016 was 9 percentage points.
Cape Town ward 19 (parts of Kuils River) was won by DA candidate Ebrahim Sawant, who took 2 062 votes against 862 for Good, 676 for the ANC, 353 for the ACDP, 164 for the EFF, 45 for the Organic Humanity Movement and 22 for the Democratic Independent Party.
The swing against the DA compared to 2016 was 17 percentage points.
Cape Town ward 82 is the Tafelsig neighbourhood in Mitchells Plain. It was won by DA candidate Washiela Harris, who took 2 422 votes, followed by Good with 492 votes, the ACDP with 441, an independent candidate with 179, the ANC with 144, another independent candidate with 61, the Cape Party with 18 votes, the Democratic Independent Party with 12, a third independent with 11 and the EFF with 3 votes.
The swing against the DA compared to 2016 was 19 percentage points, with the two Cape Town results clearly showing resentment amongst coloured urban voters in the Western Cape at the way the DA treated former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille.
