A Democratic Alliance Member of Parliament has called for new leadership in their party, saying that current leader Helen Zille has run her course. Not to be taken out of context, DA MP Makashule Gana (pictured above with former DA Youth leader, Mbali Ntuli) has expanded on reasons behind his statement, which he'd made in the Friday edition of the Mail and Guardian:
On the 10th of May when we do elect a new leader, I will personally be voting for Helen Zille to continue as the leader until the next congress, but I do believe that she has taken us through two general elections and she will have taken us through two local elections and when we go to 2019, we need to start looking at new leadership.
Loathe to pre-empt four years ahead of the 2019 General Election, Gana says an unknown leader may well be elected:
I said last year that I'd prefer Helen to take us to the 2015 local government elections and I'm still saying it now. (On who he thinks should take over in 2019) the members will decide who will take over, I can't give you a name now. It's 2015 and there's a lot that will happen between now and the next congress in 2017/2018. The political situation can change a lot and we might get someone who's currently not in the DA, but might be better for South Africa and that person might be better not only to lead the DA in the 2019 elections. We are not only going to elect someone to lead the DA, but we should be electing someone who is ready to be the President of the country.
Fears of a backlash from Zille? Not so for Gana, who is sticking by his guns:
Unlike others who, when they say these things, they want to hide behind 'unnamed sources' or they don't want to be named - I'd rather have my views be popularly known rather than to try and hide behind saying that I'm a 'senior leader of the organisation', and I hear that someone is going to punish me for what I'm saying. These are the views that I hold and I will face the consequences if anyone believes that what I'm saying is wrong, but I don't think what I'm saying is wrong and I don't think it will damage the party in any way. We are a democratic party and everyone must be free to express their views on these matters.
