Phalatse, Steenhuisen race to go to the wire

• Rivals mount vitriolic attacks against each other in heated DA internal debate

The battle for control of SA’s official opposition political party got heated on Monday, with DA leader John Steenhuisen and former Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse taking jabs at each other during a tense online debate ahead of the party’s national elective conference this weekend.

The two candidates faced off during a closed online debate in which both leaders took aim at each other as they tried to convince delegates of their visions for the official opposition party.

According to several insiders who attended the online debate, Steenhuisen and Phalatse levelled allegations of privilege and hypocrisy against each other, and questioned each other’s bona fides and their respective campaigns for party leader.

It is understood that Steenhuisen questioned Phalatse’s privileges and lifestyle on the campaign trail.

The most serious allegation levelled against her was that she used her Johannesburg mayoral perks to fund her campaign against Steenhuisen. Phalatse was ousted as Johannesburg mayor in January.

“I think he is right. She is arriving with a driver and a paidfor government car. That is not how we behave here in this party,” said one DA staff member who attended the debate.

“It does not make sense either why Mpho still has a driver — and we don’t know what else from her time as mayor in government,” another source said.

Steenhuisen’s campaign manager Ashor Sarupen declined to comment as the online debate had not been open to the public.

Insiders also told Business Day that Phalatse launched a scathing attack on Steenhuisen, labelling him a hypocrite for his inconsistent policy positions and how he treated other party leaders.

Phalatse and her campaign managers declined to comment on what transpired.

Steenhuisen, who took over the leadership reins of the DA from Mmusi Maimane in 2019, has been credited by insiders for uniting a party that had been plagued by internal squabbles and public spats.

Also this week, Lungile Phenyane dropped out of the race for leadership of the party as different provinces aligned behind their preferred candidates. Phenyane, who is a social worker by profession, is an unfamiliar name in DA circles and the national political space. She appeared on the ballot paper contesting Steenhuisen and federal council chair Helen Zille, receiving one nomination per position, which is in line with the DA’s rules of contestation.

The DA has been dogged by a mass exodus of black leaders who have criticised the party for being a “white party”. It has also been criticised for its manner of running Gauteng’s three metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, where DA mayor Randall Williams resigned under a cloud recently after the metro could not account for irregular expenditure of R10bn.

In January, Phalatse, who is now an ordinary local government councillor, was removed as Johannesburg mayor through a vote of no confidence after her meteoric rise in the party to become its face in Johannesburg in the 2021 local government elections.

Steenhuisen wants to serve another term as DA leader and take the party into the provincial and national elections in 2024, when the ANC’s electoral support is expected to fall below the 50% mark.

The DA, with Maimane at the helm, received 26.9% of the vote during the 2016 local government elections, paving the way for the party to take control of key metros such as Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane.

However, by 2019 internal DA factional politics saw the party’s national and provincial electoral support slump to 20.77%, leading to the resignations of its senior leaders such as Maimane and former Johannesburg mayor and now ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba.

Maimane, then the DA’s first black leader, resigned in 2019 over the loss of electoral support from the DA’s core constituency in the general election.

According to party procedures for the election of the leader and other top positions, all nominations received “will be interrogated by the federal compliance department in consultation with the presiding officers, to confirm the validity of nominations, interested individuals, proposers and seconders.”

Though no ceiling has been placed on the amount of funds candidates may raise, party rules stipulate that candidates need to declare their funders. Any funds raised by donations not spent after the election is over must be paid over to the party.

“No donor may be approached to contribute funds unless the national fundraising department certifies that that donor is not on the national database of donors. No existing donor to the party may be approached by any person or entity to solicit for a donation in cash nor in kind, to any internal party election,” read the rules of the party.