DA leader John Steenhuisen and federal council chair Helen Zille are a mountain too high to summit, but unknown DA member Lungile Phenyane is ready to take on other party strongmen and women at the ballot box.
She made headlines by initially contesting all the DA national positions, and sat down with Business Day on the sidelines of the party’s federal congress on Saturday morning, to clear the air.
DA members past and present took to social media after it came to light that Phenyane was contesting all the positions, questioning her credentials, and whether she was a real party member.
Phenyane subsequently withdrew from running against Steenhuisen, Zille and Dion George for the federal finance chair position.
She is running against big names including Natasha Mazzone, Refiloe Nt'sekhe, Nqaba Bhanga and Solly Malatsi for the federal chair deputy position. Bhanga is former DA Eastern Cape leader, an erstwhile MP and former executive mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay.
Phenyane, a social worker by profession, is now contesting the positions of federal chair, deputy federal chair, and federal council deputy chair.
Asked who she was, Phenyane said she’d been a party member for “quite some few years”, stressing her running for the positions was about fulfilling her lifelong dream of “making the lives of our people better”.
In the same breath, Phenyane said she did not have to occupy “a prominent position” to make an impact in the running of SA’s second-biggest political party.
“I believe skills and education are the key,” she said. Asked why she was contesting a number of positions, Phenyane, from Tshwane, answered: “I believe I can occupy any of the positions I’m standing for. I’m unique, different, vibrant and I have a [big] heart for the youth and people with disabilities.”
She said party members were “very supportive” of her running for the positions.
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