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Standing down as DA leader was 100% right thing to do – Zille

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The cover of Zille's book, Not Without A Fight. (Supplied)
The cover of Zille's book, Not Without A Fight. (Supplied)

When Helen Zille stepped down as DA leader last year, she was only 70% certain that it was the right thing to do, but now she was 100% sure.

Zille reveals this in her autobiography, Not Without A Fight, which is being released in Cape Town today.

She also reveals that Athol Trollip’s determination to stand for the candidacy as federal chairman – a position held by Wilmot James – is what precipitated her dramatic decision to quit just a month before the 2015 federal congress, leaving only one month for candidates to mobilise for a succession contest.

“I got the timing absolutely right, which was both coincidental and circumstantial. I had fortuitously avoided the fate of most politicians, captured in the aphorism ‘There is no comfortable end to a political career; only death or disgrace’, she writes.

In the build-up, Mmusi Maimane had been elected DA caucus leader after the controversial resignation of Lindiwe Mazibuko, which had aggravated divisions within the party.

Zille had been nominated again as national leader, unopposed.

“The assumption all round was that I would lead the party until the local elections in 2016 and then step down at the 2017 congress, in time for the general election of 2019,” said Zille.

But in March 2015, while she was fundraising in the US, Trollip announced his candidacy for federal chairman.

Zille knew that it was likely that Trollip would win, meaning that two top DA posts would be filled by whites, which “would be welcome grist to the ANC’s race mill”.

“I knew that one of us would have to stand down, and it wouldn’t be Athol. He had made his sacrifices. It was time for me to make mine,” she said, referring to previous losses Trollip had experienced in party leadership contests.

On April 8, her “closest advisers” Gavin Davis and Geordin Hill-Lewis, came round to her home to discuss the situation.

“We agreed that it would create an impossible situation if both Athol and I ran. They said Athol had been approached twice to stand back until the 2017 congress, but had declined. I said we could not push Athol again. It had to be me.”

Although the “pros” and “cons” list were roughly equally balanced, Zille had made her decision to stand down.

For her the greatest advantage was that everyone would be spared the “debilitating” impact of a drawn-out and divisive contest.

“I was due to be elected unopposed at the congress of 2015, but the battle for succession was already in full swing, and would have rapidly gained momentum over the remaining two years, subsuming the party’s attention when we needed to focus on the all-important local government election of 2016.”

“I knew that if the succession worked, history would judge my decision to have been the right one at the right time. If it did not, I would be blamed for stepping back prematurely for the wrong reasons.”

After a glass of wine, her two advisers left.  She called James Selfe, who thought she was making the wrong decision.

She slept on it, and the next morning met Davis, Hill-Lewis, Paul Boughey, Selfe, John Steenhuisen “and two outsiders whose opinions I valued”. Within 10 minutes it was a fait accompli.

Sworn to secrecy, they convened the federal executive (Fedex) meeting for Sunday April 12.

“About 75 % of the Fedex members were strongly opposed to my decision … But by then I was unmovable.”

Her timing proved to be spot on with the entry of the EFF to Parliament presenting “enormous “challenges, she said.

“It was essential, during this period, that the DA’s federal leader should be a Member of Parliament.”

Another reason the Western Cape premier was grateful to have relinquished the hot seat in the party was the surge in “unmatched racial toxicity and polarisation” in the country.

Maimane had become the leader of the DA at a time when the party faced the challenge of defending non-racialism, and “providing an alternative narrative, to the populist messages promoting institutional destruction and racial hatred”. 

She said the local election results proved that the decisions the party had taken were correct.

“At the time I was 70% certain that stepping down was the right decision, and 70% is a high ‘certainty ratio’ in politics. Looking back, I am now 100 % certain it was the right decision,” she said.

When Maimane was elected DA leader, she felt the “parachute of leadership drop me gently to the ground. I slipped out of the harness”.

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