By Lehlohonolo Lehana, Live from Midrand.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is holding its elective conference this weekend which will see the party elect new leadership, as the second day got under way today at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg.
Voting for the top brass opened at 6 am on Sunday morning. The party is using a digital voting system, and the vote results are expected later this afternoon.
It’s the DA’s biggest federal congress since its inception in 2000, and whoever emerges victorious as its leader on Sunday has one focus, to increase its support at the polls in 2024.
Either the incumbent John Steenhuisen or former Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse will lead the country’s biggest opposition party for the next three years.
While Steenhuisen appears to be the obvious choice, Phalatse has appealed to delegates not to write her off saying her experience and qualifications count for more than the time she’s spent in the party.
The congress will hold its only closed-door session of this gathering on Sunday morning – the discussion of its organisational and financial reports.
On Sunday, the party will also adopt resolutions that will guide it until the next policy conference.
In a last ditch effort, both Phalatse and Steenhuisen were asked to make their last campaign speeches to the members attending the congress.
Steenhuisen said he had been in the party since 1997 as a councillor and at the time it had a national support of 1.7%.
“When I joined the Democratic Party (the forerunner of the DA) in 1997 we had no illusions of the difficulties that lay ahead. We were a 1.7% party. But we knew that to cement our role in the South African political landscape we had to put in a lot of hard work,” said Steenhuisen.
He added that he had worked as a councillor for 10 years before moving to the national legislature.
“Let me tell you, as a councillor for 10 years, I knew a lot about hard work. We also knew that only the politics of the long haul will result in a political change and we knew there were no short cuts,” said Steenhuisen.
But Phalatse said it was not the length of time that someone has spent in a party that determines if they have good quality leadership skills to lead.
She said it was experience and skills that were needed to drive the party.
Phalatse said Barack Obama may not have been in the Democrats for many years, but he became one of the best leaders that the US ever had.
She said the DA has not done well in the past and they need to build that trust with communities.