After electoral setbacks in crucial by-elections that show it haemorrhaging support, the internal fights in SA’s official opposition burst into the open again with the resignation of another black leader.
Phumzile van Damme, who has in the past been involved in public spats with other DA leaders including Helen Zille, the chair of its federal council, announced on Thursday that she is stepping down as an MP and party member, citing the influence of a “clique of individuals”.
Its first black leader, Mmusi Maimane, quit the party in October 2019, saying it was not the “the vehicle best suited to take forward the vision of building” a non-racial future for SA.
Others who have jumped ship in recent years include
former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, who went on to start his own party, Action SA, and former Gauteng leader
John Moodey, who quit in September 2020.
The latest departure comes as the party is reeling from its performances in by-elections, signalling loss of support among Indian and coloured communities. On the Right, it has lost support to the Freedom Front Plus, one of the factors that saw it in 2019 losing support in national elections for the first time.
A report into its performance, which Maimane commissioned, gave a poor assessment of his leadership, paving the way for his departure.
In 40 by-elections this week, the DA contested 10 wards and retained six but lost support to the ANC and the Patriotic Alliance, led by Gayton McKenzie. Critics have said the party’s change of direction under leader John Steenhuisen, partly in an effort to win back traditional voters, has alienated black leaders as well as coloured and Indian communities.
“Successive by-election results have shown the DA lose support, particularly in the coloured community,” said election analyst Wayne Sussman.
Van Damme said she would not be joining another party. “Nor will I be using my time to launch attacks on the DA,” she said, adding that she was leaving “not because the DA is a so-called ‘racist party’ but because of a clique of individuals”.
Speaking at the time if his resignation, Maimane, who had led the party since late 2015, said he no longer felt at home in the party because it was not honest about SA’s past and race-based injustice. “Privilege exists. We have to diversify the benches of parliament. We have to work on land equity and justice,” he said.
The DA said it has accepted Van Damme’s resignation. “The DA has received and accepted the resignation of Phumzile Van Damme as a MP and from the party. We extend our best
wishes to Phumzile and thank her for her extraordinary service to the DA in parliament and by extension, the country.”
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