John Matisonn: The stars aligned for the DA this weekend

Key topics:DA unveils younger, diverse leadership at national congressANC crises and dysfunction boost DA’s political positioningHill-Lewis sets ambitious goal to win national support.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By John Matisonn.Readers of this space will be surprised by very little about the Democratic Alliance’s generational handover to new leaders under 40, mostly well-educated technocrats finding their feet in government, under a new white male leader who presents extremely well and is surrounded by more racially diverse colleagues.Newly elected DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis, mayor of Cape Town, welcomed new federal council chair, deputy finance minister Ashor Sarupen to replace Helen Zille, as well as the new party chairperson, Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga. .Msimanga’s victory was the least certain, ending a close race against the incumbent, Western Cape MEC Dr Ivan Meyer. Increased diversity was reflected in Msimanga’s three deputies, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, former Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink, and Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi.The party ran a slick, well-oiled show. But the stars aligned for the DA this weekend when the ANC provided a backdrop of bad news the DA could only have dreamed of.The DA congress was designed to show the starkest contrast with the ANC –presenting leaders as humble and empathetic, efficient, punctual, competent, and multiracial in a way the ANC used to be. But South African media consumers also saw stories about ANC perfidy, arrogance or gross neglect across news outlets. The DA’s core message was designed to highlight the contrast and respond to the national mood: We know South Africans outside the Western Cape are cynical that anything can get better, but we assure you South Africa can be fixed, and we are ready and able to do it. The set at Gallagher Estate – all-important since all three South African TV news channels gave close to gavel to gavel coverage – was high tech, the right messages flashing above talented, diverse musical stars. The subliminal message: the endless delays, amateurism and uninformative communication we are used to are not inevitable..The DA could not have choreographed the ANC opposition they will be up against in the local elections in the next 7 to 9 months and the national elections in 2029 better.The Madlanga Commission and the drumbeat of exposes of ANC tenderpreneurs abusing BEE to accumulate Italian supercars without not fixing the water or potholes they were paid to fix were the background. ANC social media are showing for the first time that even lifelong ANC voters are finally angry about the betrayal.That message has finally taken hold at the grassroots. News24 published a leaked letter from former president Kgalema Motlanthe pointing to “administrative dysfunctionality across all structures of the ANC”, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Western Cape and even the ever-loyal Eastern Cape. Provinces failed to convene branch meetings, appoint electoral officers and other campaign preparations in violation of a directive from Luthuli House, Motlanthe said. His greatest criticism was for KwaZulu-Natal where, he wrote, not a single branch or region was functioning..The Sunday Times underlined this theme with a report that today’s – Monday – ANC National Working Committee will discuss removing ex-cabinet minister Jeff Radebe as head of the task team sent to KwaZulu-Natal to rescue the party after its collapse at the hands of Jacob Zuma’s Mkhonto weSizwe party.“We thought we were sending a Ferrari, but I think now that it is a Tazz,” the paper quoted ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula as saying of Radebe.ANC Gauteng is almost as bad – showing the ANC in serious trouble in the three most wealthy and populous provinces, leaving it increasingly viable only in rural South Africa. Against that dismal background, the DA aimed to show by example how the ANC’s mistakes must not be repeated. Both outgoing leader John Steenhuisen and federal council chair Helen Zille made graceful exits and ongoing commitment to the DA’s success.Hill-Lewis set a new tone by embracing the losing candidates and assuring them a future in the party, even acknowledging the role of former leader Mmusi Maimane before he resigned from the party when he lost the leadership. .The obvious but needed lesson was that losing an election is honourable and does not diminish your value to the country. Hill-Lewis has set his aim high – to lead South Africa nationally by gaining black votes without losing white or coloured votes, by showing how service delivery helps the poor even more than the rich, that the country can come together again as was intended at the dawn of democracy. “Our mission is building the DA into the biggest party in South Africa,” he said. “Not victory for its own sake and not power as an end in itself, but growth, a purpose and strength in the service of our beautiful country, a party strong enough to shape the future of South Africa in line with our values…“…The DA must combine competence with humility, principle with humanity and discipline with warmth. That is the kind of politics I believe in,” he said.It’s the DA’s most ambitious agenda yet. Now he has to convince the country he can do it.

John Matisonn: The stars aligned for the DA this weekend

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