Trollip 'asked to make way' for Mazibuko

DA leaders with ties to party chief Helen Zille are said to have put their parliamentary boss Athol Trollip under pressure to withdraw from the fierce race for the official opposition's top job in parliament.

The Sunday Times has learnt from several sources in the DA that Trollip was asked to pull out of the race with rising star Lindiwe Mazibuko by party federal council chairman James Selfe at a private meeting in the latter's office.

Another insider insisted that Zille was present at the meeting, but she has denied this and has dismissed talk she asked Trollip not to challenge Mazibuko.

Selfe has refused to comment about what transpired. "It was a meeting between me and him. I am not prepared to comment on a private conversation."

Trollip said: "This is an internal party election. Whatever discussions I had with anybody in the party about this, is an internal matter."

Mazibuko and Trollip will square up when the DA's 83-member caucus meets to vote for a new leader on October 27.

Zille is pushing the 31-year-old MP in an attempt to rid the DA of the old guard that mainly opposes the direction she is taking the party. Trollip has the support of older, mainly Afrikaner members of the DA caucus as well as several black MPs who are concerned about Zille's influence on Mazibuko.

A DA MP, who asked not to be named, said Selfe told Trollip that he should consider stepping aside without a fight to spare the party the embarrassment of failing to elect a black leader when this was its best chance to do so. But Trollip is said to have rejected Selfe's proposal, informing him that he (Trollip) will be standing for the parliamentary leader position again when MPs vote.

In 2009 Trollip defeated another Zille favourite, Ryan Coetzee, for the same position. Coetzee resigned shortly there after.

Zille told the Sunday Times on Friday that she had never personally asked Trollip to pull out of the leadership race. The DA leader said she warned Trollip, about two months ago, not to call a snap election for the position as he planned, and to give others like Mazibuko a chance to challenge for the post.

"About two months ago, I merely advised him not to try to call a snap election in the caucus because other candidates might want to contest the position at the scheduled mid-term date."

Zille said when she spoke to Trollip at the time, she was not aware that Mazibuko was intending to challenge him.

"I mentioned Lindiwe as an example of a possible candidate, although I had no definite knowledge that she was planning to make herself available.

"I just knew that many people felt she would make a good candidate and I wanted the process to be fair and open for any available candidate," she said.

On claims that she was openly campaigning for Mazibuko, Zille said: "I have spoken to two MPs about the election, I may still speak to others."

This week, DA MPs, including caucus chairman James Masango and his deputy Marti Wenger, publicly pledged their support for Mazibuko but there has been no open support for Trollip yet. But an MP close to him said those who support Trollip would start coming out publicly this week.

Another Trollip sympathiser said they feared Mazibuko's victory would mean Zille gets to run the party's parliamentary caucus by remote control.