DA gears up to elect new leader as Steenhuisen, Ntuli square off
Member of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature Mbali Ntuli says despite concerns about her lack of parliamentary experience, her provincial work makes her fit for the Democratic Alliance's (DA) top job.
This weekend, Ntuli will go up against the party's interim leader John Steenhuisen in a contest to lead the party.
Either Ntuli or John Steenhuisen will emerge as Federal Leader.
Speaking ahead of the Federal Congress on Saturday, Ntuli said she has no doubt that being in Parliament will not be different from the work she is doing now, just a different scale.
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"But that should never be something that disqualifies a person. It's like saying you can't do a job if you have never done it before.
"So, I think there has been some logical fallacies when people have raised that as a point of concern," Mbali said.
She said the first thing she will do, regardless of the outcome, is reach out to Steenhuisen and his team.
"And just appreciate the formidable campaign they have run and if I win my first call is going to around it and make sure we actually have a plan going into our local government elections.”
Meanwhile, Steenhuisen says he's aim is to win back the trust of the people and gain new supporters for the party.
"I don't want to be party leader that competes always for second place, I want to be the core of the new majority and that means winning over people,e who have never voted for us before.
"So, it's not an 'either/or' it's an 'and', you've got to win back the trust of people who were not happy with the DA in the last election but also go out aggressively to seek new voters.”
