SA’s second-largest political party, the DA, held a successful federal congress this weekend.
It was a historic event, one that marked the transfer of power from one generation to the next — leader John Steenhuisen handing over to his successor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.
It also marked the departure from the national political scene of Helen Zille, the former DA leader and immediate past chair of the party’s federal council.
She is not completely lost to politics yet as Zille is currently the party’s candidate in the DA’s ambitious goal of taking over the running of Johannesburg, the country’s most influential metro, after this year’s local government elections.
Though the DA has been SA’s second-largest political party for most of post-apartheid SA’s history, this year’s congress had an added significance because the DA is now a party of government — having become the ANC’s largest partner in the government of national unity.
Hence SA followed the developments at the congress with added intensity as its outcomes were likely to influence how the country is governed for the next four years or more.
As a party centrist, Hill-Lewis is unlikely to depart from the GNU path that had been chosen by Steenhuisen and Zille.
Though he is unlikely to join the national government soon, preferring to remain in Cape Town where he is completing his term as mayor, he has expressed support for the party remaining in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet.
This will ensure the stability of the coalition government.
However, Hill-Lewis has a daunting task ahead of him — that of trying to grow the party by convincing voters that it can do better than the ANC while, at the same time, ensuring that it remains the ANC’s dependable partner in the GNU.
This delicate balancing act, if not handled properly, could cut short his career as party leader.
However, if he succeeds, it may grant the party a much stronger hand when it enters into new negotiations for the next national coalition government with other parties in 2029.
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