Black DA MPs divided over Mazibuko

The leadership race in the Democratic Alliance (DA) has revealed deep divisions among black members of the party's parliamentary caucus.

The Sunday Times has established that black MPs from provinces such as Gauteng and Mpumalanga are fully behind Lindiwe Mazibuko, while their counterparts from the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape want Athol Trollip to remain as the DA's parliamentary leader.

Mazibuko, the DA's national spokesman who is one of SA's youngest MPs at 31, announced this week that she would be challenging incumbent Trollip for the position of DA parliamentary leader.

The DA's 83 MPs are set to vote for their leader on October 27.

Mazibuko's challenge of Trollip, which is said to have the backing of party leader Helen Zille, has been interpreted in some quarters as an attempt by the DA to demonstrate that it has confidence in its black MPs after criticism that the party's leadership was too white.

But two black MPs in Trollip's camp, who asked not to be named, told the Sunday Times that they would not be voting for Mazibuko because of her close ties with Zille.

The MPs fear that should Mazibuko trounce Trollip, Zille would run the caucus by remote control from her government offices on Cape Town's Wale Street.

They also said that Mazibuko was too junior and lacked political experience required for the job.

"This is not on, it is not going to work. We will show them when we vote that this is not child's play. Athol is a seasoned leader and an experienced politician," said a DA MP who is firmly behind Trollip.

Another Trollip supporter said: "We must not fall into a trap of being too obsessed with colour when dealing with diversity. We should not simply parachute people in in the name of diversity and transformation."

But those in the Mazibuko faction fired back, saying the time had come for Trollip, who is also the DA's leader in the Eastern Cape, to decide which position he wanted.

"Athol is already a leader in the Eastern Cape, why should we give one person two hats when we can stretch and bring in a young person who will bring us the change we want," said a Mazibuko sympathiser.

Mazibuko, whose announcement also heralded the fast-tracking of a DA campaign to attract a large number of black voters in the run-up to the 2014 elections, dismissed concerns that she was too young for the job.

"I believe my age is an asset to this slate and to this party's leadership. We in the DA need to capture those young voters, particularly in 2014, when there's going to be a whole new crop of so-called born-frees - people born after 1994 - in order to keep that momentum of a progressive, forward-moving, modern political party going," she said.

Trollip has welcomed the challenge.

He said should he loose, he would stay as ordinary MP. "I was elected for a term of five years. I don't believe that winning or losing will make any difference."