Party leader Zille shoring up DA support in Bay‘s Northern Areas

GIVEN the likely battle for votes in Port Elizabeth‘s Northern Areas and other parts of the country that were previously designated for occupation by people classified as “coloured” in the next election, it is hardly surprising that Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille would accept an invitation to lead a march last Saturday against drugs and crime in Korsten as she has done on the Cape Flats in the past.

The Independent Democrats (ID) have been targeting these areas and have registered a number of victories in municipal by-elections, with another six on the radar for May 21, of which two are in George.

Privately, the DA is concerned and while voters will only go to the polls in some 12 months‘ time in a general election, there are grounds for believing Patricia de Lille‘s party could win its first seat in the Bhisho Legislature at the expense of the DA and also lay the groundwork for a serious assault on several DA-held wards in the next municipal elections.

De Lille, of course, has a distinct advantage. She is not mayor of Cape Town and leader of the official opposition, and therefore has the time to criss-cross the country, speaking and campaigning.

Zille cannot do that as she heads an alliance in the Mother City that requires constant nurturing, has permanently to be watching for the next manoeuvre by the ANC that is determined to unseat her, and lead a political party.

De Lille‘s party also has a further advantage as it holds the economic, social development and tourism portfolio on the Cape Town mayoral executive and Simon Grindrod has used that well to advance the interests of the ID.

Looking ahead to the election, some senior DA members are worried about the extent of the workload Zille will have to carry.

Looking at the situation one has a certain sense of déjà vu.

When Frederik van Zyl Slabbert became leader of the then Progressive Federal Party in 1979, many believed, particularly after the party‘s showing in the 1981 election, that it had found a great leader and that he was all that was needed to bring in the votes.

The result was an increasingly great burden was placed on his shoulders, to the extent that he was dispatched, for example, to sort out problems in the Bryanston constituency and to speak at meetings in by-elections even when the party had no hope of winning.

In 1984, for example, he spoke in Knysna at a meeting attended by about 40 party members. The expression on his face as one of the local heavyweights proceeded to spell out PFP policy to a group who were almost certainly all card-carrying members plainly asked: “What am I doing here?”

For the record the PFP came third after the NP and Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP).

One wonders whether having elected Zille the same tendency is not developing within the ranks of the DA, a sort of “leave it to Helen” syndrome.

If that is the case, and some members of the DA suggest a tendency appears to be developing along those lines, then the party needs to take a critical look at itself urgently.

It will simply be impossible for Zille to carry her existing work load and lead the party into the next election, particularly as politically it would only be astute for the ANC to try and unseat her in Cape Town during the campaign, so hoping to tie her down to the Western Cape.

Certainly parliamentary leader Sandra Botha is lightening the load as much as she can. She was, for example, in the Eastern Cape last week when the DA held a briefing on the death of 80 babies at Sterkspruit – the silence from the provincial government on that issue is astounding.

But there is a limit to what she can do.

The proportional representation system, of course, does not make things any easier for the DA as it is the leader whose picture appears on the posters and the ballot paper, and it is therefore the leader people want to see and hear.

Somehow the party will have to find a way to manage the situation. Just how it plans to do so, remains to be seen – if it fails to do so then it may well find itself facing losses at the polls.

What is certain is the ID believes it is poised to make major gains in DA-controlled areas.

In De Lille it has a leader every bit as capable of attracting support as Zille, while the ANC cannot but believe the election will provide it with an opportunity for yet another assault on the DA-led coalition in Cape Town.