DA leader John Steenhuisen has poured cold water on allegations that the party, under his stewardship, let its former Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse be voted out to sabotage her chances in the contest for a new party leader at a congress billed for April.
To the contrary, charged Steenhuisen in an interview with TimesLIVE Premium, it would serve him better to have Phalatse remain as mayor than have her outside with all the time to mount a formidable campaign against him.
Steenhuisen and Phalatse are expected to go toe-to-toe for the top job at the April congress when the former will seek re-election. The latter is out to unseat him.
According to Steenhuisen any suggestions of sabotage were not true.
“It would surely be in my best interests to keep mayor Phalatse busy in Joburg and tied up there, rather than have her out of office where she has got more time to campaign. If that was the Machiavellian streak, it is quite the opposite,” said Steenhuisen.
“I have done nothing but support the mayor, including giving up my own office at Bruma when she was out of office for that time [illegally voted out as mayor last year] and giving up staff from my office to provide support and communication support.
“I bear no malice towards her, I have been nothing but supportive. Internal contestation is a good thing, and I have never shied away from contestation.”
Phalatse announced last week that she was ready to take on Steenhuisen in April.
In an interview with Eusebius McKaiser, she said DA members were longing for a different leadership to Steenhuisen’s.
“There is a growing discontent internally in the DA. There is a growing sense that the current leadership is not the leadership we need to take us into the 2024 general election,” said Phalatse.
“There is recognition that this is a very important and historic election, in the sense that for the first time since 1994 we are likely to see the ANC go below 50%.”
She said she had raised her hand because not only was there a call for change within the DA, but many in other parties had also become frustrated with the party under its current leadership.
“There has been a resounding voice that the DA needs to be more flexible, that the DA needs to be more flexible within a coalition context and so on.”
Phalatse said the party was not growing enough because the top leadership was not in touch with the masses.
It was for this reason that she believed she was the right person to take the party forward.
Steenhuisen said it was under his leadership that the party pulled out all the stops to ensure Phalatse rose to become Joburg’s first resident.
When Phalatse was removed and replaced with ANC’s Dada Morero, a move that was overturned by the courts, he charged, it was the DA that committed “hundreds of thousands of rand” in legal fees to save the day.
“In addition to that, we picked up the salaries of the mayor’s chief of staff and the mayor herself, so that she could be sustained over that period, and she was provided with office space, staff and resources in that intervening period,” said Steenhuisen.
PODCAST | Mpho Phalatse says John Steenhuisen does not connect with the masses
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