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UPDATE: Zille emerged victorious as federal council chairperson
Former DA leader Helen Zille has conceded that the row caused by her tweets in May could have contributed to the party’s electoral decline.
In an interview with City Press this week, Zille slammed the party for changing the way in which it conducted its internal polls for the May 8 elections, resulting in misleading figures.
The former premier spoke to City Press ahead of its most crucial meeting yet, which will end today, with the voting in of a new federal council chairperson.
Zille had thrown her lot in alongside federal executive chairperson Athol Trollip, former deputy chief whip Mike Waters and deputy federal chairperson Thomas Walters.
Zille insisted that she tried “desperately” not to avail herself, believing that chief whip John Steenhuisen – who pulled out of the race before nominations were finalised – and former policy head Gwen Ngwenya were better suited for the powerful position.
But neither had stood for nomination.
She said her husband gave her the final push.
“He said, ‘I know you if you don’t try, you will always curse yourself if the DA starts to unravel, you can’t prevent it from unravelling’ – and I haven’t got a messiah complex believe me – but he said ‘you will blame yourself forever if you don’t try’.”
Zille believes that her “opponents” used race identity politics to target her in an attempt to foil her bid to emerge as chairperson.
This is despite the fact that all four candidates were whites.
“Even when there is an election where four white people stand, someone will find a way into a race referendum.”
Day one of the sitting of the highest decision-making structure in between congresses was dedicated to unpacking a report by a panel set up after the May 8 polls to diagnose what went wrong in the electoral campaign and to advise how best to take the party forward.
Reluctant to acknowledge her part at first, Zille said eight months after her “legacy of colonialism tweets”, the party was polling at its highest with 31%. She said it was after the Patricia de Lille saga that the party then started to dip.
“I think the controversy around my tweets was very unfortunate and was part of creating a difficult context for the DA, yes,” she said, when asked if her tweets had any bearing on the electoral results.
“I think the controversy around my tweets which was in part manufactured outrage, did have a negative effect on the DA. In long-term history, I think I will look back to say I was right to fight these things but short-term history is different,” the former premier said, agreeing that she should have backed down for the good of the party.
Preliminary reports on the party’s poor performance indicated that poor messaging, infighting as well the handling of Zille’s and De Lille’s disciplinary matters were all matters that voters found off-putting.
Zille, who has always warned about overreliance on polls, said this week that the party took on a populist approach in conducting its polls.
Internal polls had indicated that the party would garner around 24% to 26% of the national vote, but it ended up at about 21%, declining from the 22% it achieved at the 2015 polls.
“Normally we ask questions and then, depending on the response, we don’t change our position on polarising matters but we make the messaging more palatable.
“This time things changed; we got ‘soft ANC’ people into a room and polled their feelings and if their beliefs came up to be racial nationalists then we changed our message to be like that. So if they said we hate foreign nationals, we come up with a slogan, ‘South Africans first’. Where does that come from? It is so against my values.”
Opening up about the unravelling of a succession plan which she helped set in motion when she gave embattled leader Mmusi Maimane the nod for the job, Zille said that she was in part responsible.
“Looking back I don’t regret that I made way for him to lead us into that election season. I don’t regret that I made way for him to lead us to that electoral success at all. But different times require different actions and decisions.
“I did think it was time for the DA to have a black leader because the overwhelming narrative of everyone, our supporters, members, donors, everyone was leading in that direction. But I always knew that you could not put anyone into a key position only because of their colour.”
Beyond being black, she said, the leader had the charisma to drive the party to success in the 2016 polls.
Zille said she would not directly become involved in a succession debate again.
“I will not get involved in trying to find a successor ever again, but I don’t want that to come across as if it is a bad reflection on Mmusi, no.”
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