Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse is considering challenging John Steenhuisen for the leadership of the DA at the party’s congress in April next year.
Phalatse’s spokesperson Mabine Seabe told the Sunday Times the mayor was still consulting on whether to make herself available for election.
Party insiders say Phalatse would have a mountain to climb as Steenhuisen has a firm grip on the party’s structures. Many of his opponents have left the party, including Mbali Ntuli, who challenged Steenhuisen for the position in 2020, and Makashule Gana who took him on in 2019.
“The executive mayor has not made a decision. She will use the December period to pray and consult,” said Seabe.
Several DA leaders expressed doubt about Phalatse’s chances as they believe she is not well established outside Gauteng.
Most of us think she is too busy fighting to keep a coalition to contest an incumbent who has led us through some difficult periods
— KwaZulu-Natal DA leader
She rose to prominence with her election as Joburg mayor in November 2021, the first woman to occupy the office.
Phalatse has had to fight off attempts by the ANC and its partners to remove her from the position. She was reinstated by the South Gauteng High Court in October after it ruled invalid and unlawful her removal through a motion of no confidence a month earlier.
Two prominent DA leaders from Joburg said they had only heard about her intention to stand in “corridor talk”. She had not approached them or asked for their support.
Two other DA MPs said they hoped she would focus on her job as mayor and build her base by turning Joburg around.
“She’s just returned to the office and the ANC is circling her. She can’t lose focus now,” said one.
Steenhuisen, who was first elected interim leader when Musi Maimane resigned in 2019, recently launched his campaign for re-election. At the event, he spoke about how he had to pick up the pieces after the disastrous 2019 elections.
In Steenhuisen’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal, his supporters don’t believe Phalatse poses any challenge to his pursuit of a second term.
“John announced early and is already ahead. There are people who could try to contest him but Mpho would be the least challenging,” one leader in the province told the Sunday Times.
Another KZN leader who is a close ally of Steenhuisen believes Phalatse’s popularity within the party declined “drastically” when she considered working with the EFF to hold on to Johannesburg.
“Clinging to power at all costs has squandered the favour she had with the membership. I believe most of us think she is too busy fighting to keep a coalition to contest an incumbent who has led us through some difficult periods, such as the electoral decline and mass exodus.
“Mpho is not even known outside of Johannesburg. Anyone who wants to beat John could maybe try to convince Geordin Hill-Lewis to stand. Mpho has no chance.”
Maimane’s departure came on the back of a review report by one of his predecessors, Tony Leon, which said: “The losses [in the 2019] general election could well pale into insignificance against the likely disintegration of the party’s support at the 2021 local government elections.”
Steenhuisen revealed that the party’s own polling showed support for the DA at the time had declined to 16%.
“In that environment, the easy thing to do was to throw in the towel and walk away, like many people did. But we, the people in this room, and proud DA members around the country did not choose the easy way out.
“We — you and I — chose to stand and fight! And boy, did we fight,” he said.
Steenhuisen said the party was now up in the polls, winning seven out of the last eight by-elections, with DA mayors in a record 38 municipalities.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.