LISTEN: DA leadership is focused, says Maimane

Maimane was speaking to the media in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

“It’s a completely unfair view, here we are running a city that continues to deliver services to its people, we are building one South Africa for all and here we are effecting accountability. We are focused on putting South Africa first, that is the only focus that the DA has,” Maimane said.

On Sunday, reports of a possible split in the party emerged but have since been denied.

Maimane told journalists that the reports of internal divisions in the DA are simply not true.

“All the other leaders including Refiloe Ntseke, provincial leaders, including the executive have been traveling together to say let’s meet and executive a focus in delivering services for all South Africans and of course as the leader I must be at the forefront of the issue. I am focused here.”

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga believes the party’s policy framework is one of the core challenges facing the leadership ahead of next year’s elections. 

 “There are genuine concerns on how the DA needs to deal with the question of transformation. For a while they DA could actually avoid those issues by focusing on former President Jacob Zuma, but Zuma is not there and the party actually has to tell people what it is about instead of focusing on what it’s not about and its difficult for them to craft this message.” 

Mathekga says Maimane can deal with the challenges facing the party if he is given space and time.

“He will be able to deal with this and I think he is trying. I hear him trying to put nuances on some of the discussions that have divided the party, and it’s not going to be easy. The problem is not the broader membership of the DA but the some of the senior members of the DA who don’t seem willing to give him that space and keep embarrassing him in public,” adds Mathekga.