With just weeks to go before the DA closes nominations ahead of a national conference scheduled for April, DA leader John Steenhuisen is in poll position to be re-elected party leader.
With SA's official opposition having haemorrhaged leaders to newly formed ActionSA in recent years, Steenhuisen is the only candidate who has thus far accepted nomination for the top job in the party.
Steenhuisen took over as DA leader when Mmusi Maimane, then the DA’s first black leader, resigned in 2019 over the loss of electoral support from the DA’s core constituency. Steenhuisen said he had accepted nomination for re-election as DA leader.
“I would like to finish the project I started. The DA was in a nose dive and the 2024 elections are important for the party and whole of SA,” Steenhuisen said.
He added that through coalitions, the DA could be on track to, at the very least, be a part of national government come 2024.
With the ANC having lost electoral support in successive elections, the governing party is on track to lose its majority come the general election in 2024. Severe continued load-shedding is also expected to again hit the ANC hard in the polls, as it did in the 2021 local government elections outcome.
All DA provincial and national leaders that Business Day spoke to this week, said they expected Steenhuisen’s re-election and a predictable in the build up to the party’s elective meeting in 2023.
“It is dry, basically everyone agrees that this conference needs to consolidate gains towards 2024 and perhaps plan succession going forward,” one DA national leader said.
“There may be some noise from some quarters, but one cannot stand up two months before conference and decide they are running,” another DA national leader said.
A number of DA provincial structures will elect new leadership at the end of February and that will ultimately decide if Steenhuisen faces any serious contest in April.
Political analyst Ongama Mtimka said he did not believe Steenhuisen was a shoo-in as the DA has lost leaders to ActionSA in recent years.
“The likely retention of the DA leadership reflects the dearth of viable factions that hold different ideas within the party. That’s both in terms of ideas about policy offering and the political programme of the party. All potential contenders to the party’s leadership who could viably challenge the position of leader and other roles have explored other avenues for their political ambitions,” Mtimka said.
There have been some suggestions Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse could stand to contest Steenhuisen.
But Mtimka does not think that that is a good idea. “There was a feeling among some that she should await her time. She doesn’t have viable political machinery to deliver her to a leadership position that includes challenging those currently in power.
“Forming an alliance with the dominant leaders could be her best strategy for ascension to national leadership which can improve her political capital for the next conference,” Mtimka said.
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