The DA’s leaders are jumping ship after Helen Zille’s return to the party.
On Wednesday, both leader Mmusi Maimane and federal chairperson Athol Trollip quit, but said they would stay on as DA members.
Their shock resignations follow that of Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, who stepped down in protest at the return of former party leader Zille chair of the DA’s federal council.
The DA’s leadership vacuum means Zille will effectively be calling the shots until the Fedex meets to discuss a new leader.
Trollip, a former Nelson Mandela Bay mayor, said his decision to gooi was made because he believed the leadership carried collective responsibility for the party’s poor performance in the 2019 elections.
STEP DOWN: Athol Trollip
Maimane was elected as DA leader on 10 May 2015 as
successor to Zille.
He stepped down on Wednesday, citing a sustained campaign to undermine his vision of a united, non-racial
South Africa.
“I will today step down as leader of the DA,” he told a press conference in Johannesburg.
“Over the past months, it has become quite clear to me that there exists a grouping within the DA who do not see eye to eye with me, and do not share this vision for the party and the direction it was taking.
“There has been for several months a consistent and co-ordinated attempt to undermine my leadership and ensure that either this project failed, or I failed.
“This extended to the smear campaign that was run on the front pages of an Afrikaans weekly paper in an attempt to destroy my name and my integrity.
“This cowardly behaviour has put my wife and two young children in great danger as pictures of our home were published in the media.”
He also had harsh words for Zille, who stood behind him as he announced his resignation.
He said they had clashed on issues, in particular her controversial comments of colonialism, but that the mutual respect between them had endured.
RESIGN: Mmusi Maimane admits to having clashes with Helen Zille.
Meanwhile Patricia de Lille, a former DA member and City of Cape Town mayor could not resist rubbing salt into Maimane’s wounds.
De Lille, who quit the DA in October last year to form her own party, GOOD, after vicious in-fighting, took to Twitter, posting a pic of herself smiling and wearing boxing gloves.
She tweeted: “Mmusi Maimane gets a taste of his own medicine.”
On #MmusiMaimane's resignation: "He saw the blue train coming but didn’t know how to get out of the way". Full statement by GOOD Leader @PatriciaDeLille here https://t.co/x6XMudpWSw
— Good (@ForGoodZA) October 23, 2019
In a statement, she said she left the DA on her own terms: “I am not claiming to be a sangoma but I warned Mmusi Maimane that if he didn’t stand on principle his party’s laptop boys would swallow him up and spit him out."