DA+caucus+split+as+dual+leadership+sows+discord,+Ensor,+B+Day



=DA caucus split as dual leadership sows discord=


 * Linda Ensor, Political Correspondent, Business Day, Johannesburg, 23 January 2008**

Cape Town — Discontent over the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) dual leadership structure is rumbling within the party’s parliamentary caucus.

None of the dissatisfied MPs were willing to express their views on the record yesterday, but they pointed to the existence of factions in the caucus which divide supporters of national leader Helen Zille and those of parliamentary leader Sandra Botha into different camps.

They say these splits reflect longstanding divisions in the party between die-hard “liberals” from the Democratic Party days and those willing to see the DA adapt to accommodate the views of its former New National Party members. These factions have now coalesced, the MPs say, around Botha and Zille.

The DA decided last year to have two leaders so that Zille could retain her position as mayor of Cape Town, though many questioned the wisdom of this move.

Botha and Zille both vehemently deny any suggestion of discontent in the caucus, as do DA deputy leader Joe Seremane and caucus chairman Kraai van Niekerk.

“There are always those kind of rumours within politics and there will always be factions,” Van Niekerk noted yesterday.

While DA MPs were unanimous that Zille was readily available for telephone or e-mail contact, the lack of regular direct access was widely “regretted”.

Botha apparently raised the question of her lack of personal access to Zille at the December caucus meeting, saying that she had had only 70 minutes with Zille since her election in May last year.

Another allegedly thorny issue — again denied by both leaders — is the perceived hold that party chief whip and Zille ally Ian Davidson exerts within the caucus and over Botha herself. He was allegedly mandated to vet Botha’s press statements after the release last year of one relating to the party’s right wing, which Zille disagreed with.

However, Zille rejected this allegation, saying press statements were also passed by former chief whip Douglas Gibson. Botha also denies that anyone vets her statements.

One MP said, though, that “quite a number of people have said they are quite disappointed with the way things (between Zille and Botha) are working out. In caucus this feeling is reasonably widespread but I don’t think it is sufficiently strong at this point to cause a rethink of the structure.

“The system fails because there really is no leadership,” another MP said.

“The people who have been elected as leaders are not leading. Botha is feeling very frustrated. She is supposed to be a leader but she cannot lead. She is not allowed to lead.”

Another believed that Botha had not accepted that she was simply Zille’s representative in Parliament and not a leader in her own right.

But both Zille and Botha say they are unaware of any such problems. “So far things have been working extremely well,” Botha says.

“I don’t think we have a divided caucus. If it is so, it is without my knowledge.

“We would like to see more of Helen but understand that this cannot be the case. I can communicate whenever I need to.” Botha strongly denied that her wings had been clipped, as suggested.

“Never,” she insisted. “Never once has she said or done anything to make me feel that.”


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/frontpage.aspx?ID=BD4A689924**

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