EDITORIAL | Let’s face DA facts, Steenhuisen is a flop as leader

After the DA’s dismal performance in the 2019 elections, when it went down from 22% in 2014 to just over 20% that year, the party appointed an independent panel to conduct a review of the organisation. It had seen its representation in the national assembly shrink from 89 to 84 seats, after years of steady rise. The panel’s report was scathing on its then leader Mmusi Maimane — about how he had failed to provide proper political direction for the party.

The report painted a directionless party that lacked character and vision. It recommended Maimane and former federal council chair James Selfe step down. Fortunately for Selfe, he had already jumped ship by the time the report was issued. It was Maimane who had to fall on his sword. “There has been a critical failure of leadership at the top of the party, resulting in confusion about the party’s values and vision, uncertainty about its direction and a fragmentation of its purpose,” said the report that had been compiled by DA boffins, former leader Tony Leon and former CEO Ryan Coetzee.

After a few months of holding the fort, Maimane’s former ally, John Steenhuisen, was elected to the position last year. And he was quick to promise he was the right man to the fix the DA.

“There were moments in our recent past when the DA looked for populist shortcuts and failed to offer clear solutions to the decline caused by state control. There have been times when the DA failed to be a dependable ally in the people’s fight for power.

“For a while, we lost sight of who we were and what we offer: clear, principled and decisive leadership. Fortunately, mistakes don’t have to be fatal — provided you learn from them.

“Over the past year, we embarked on a journey of introspection to fix that which was broken in our party. Precisely, because we had the courage to face up to our mistakes, I can tell you today that the days of breaking trust with South Africans are well and truly over.

“Under my leadership, the DA will never again turn our back on our core principles. We are a liberal party committed to nonracialism, a market economy and a capable state that empowers citizens and cares for the vulnerable.

“We have always been at our strongest — and achieved our best results — when we stood strong on these principles,” he told DA delegates shortly after his election last year.

The fight over the direction of the DA between the liberal and conservative factions in the party is in full swing.

However, hardly a year since Steenhuisen made this famous speech, his party finds itself in the same spot where Maimane left it.

The fight over the direction of the DA between the liberal and conservative factions in the party is in full swing.

Steenhuisen finds himself unable to assert his power, as he seems to have lost his real leadership test this past week when his own federal executive forced him and his allies to withdraw the controversial and racist Phoenix posters.

The forced apology for the “racists vs heroes” posters and the resignation of former MP Mike Waters as an Ekurhuleni elections head are proof that the power struggle for control of the DA has just started.

Just as Maimane left it two years ago, the DA has an identity crisis and Steenhuisen appears to have no idea how to resolve it. It is not clear whether the party intends being an effective opposition that appeals to all South Africans, or if it wants to be another Freedom Front Plus that only cares about the interests of minority groupings.

The continued lack of clarity on where the party stands on race issues, and actions that seek to isolate the majority of voters, can only do further harm to the DA’s attempts to grow its support beyond its existing voter base.

The posters scandal has defocused the party’s campaign, as it follows Steenhuisen and his other leaders each time they hit the campaign trail.

Steenhuisen’s conduct on the matter is also not making life easier for the DA, whose FedEx instructed that the person who unilaterally put up the posters — his ally Dean Mcpherson — should apologise.

The instruction was issued in his presence last Thursday, yet Steenhuisen, in media interviews, keeps insisting that there’s nothing to apologise for. It’s a spectacle.

This will have serious consequences for the DA when voters take to the polls on November 1.

The ANC is at its worst at the moment, with heightened infighting and lack of campaign funds.

However, an equally fractured DA is incapable of exploiting this opportunity, which is a sad turn of events as far as voter alternatives are concerned this year.