SOUTH AFRICA: Helen Zille to lead embattled South Africa opposition party the Democratic Alliance (AD)

Record ID: 454700

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: Helen Zille to lead embattled South Africa opposition party the Democratic Alliance (AD)
  • Date: 9th May 2007
  • Summary: DELEGATES SEATED AND LISTENING DURING THE CONGRESS TONY LEON, OUTGOING DA LEADER, ADDRESSING THE CONGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) TONY LEON, OUTGOING DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE LEADER, ADDRESSING THE CONGRESS SAYING: "But change is what you have to do in order to cultivate new leaders for our party and our country. Change is a necessary path of growth, and a leader who holds on to power for to long, may end up by destroying that what he or she has taken so long to build-up over so many years." LEON WAVING TO DELEGATES AS HE LEAVES THE STAGE, AND SUPPORTERS SHOUTING "VIVA" DELEGATES STANDING AS LEON WALKS OUT LEON AND HIS WIFE GREETING DELEGATES
  • Embargoed: 24th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEIMPYBAF7FTORFFTHV0HSOP6W
  • Story Text: South Africa's main opposition party the Democratic Alliance (AD) elects the tough-talking white mayor of Cape Town - Helen Zille - as its new leader, who will seek to break the party's "whites only" image and challenge the political dominance of the ruling ANC.
    South Africa's official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), held its congress near Johannesburg over the weekend. The main item on the agenda was the election of a party leader to succeed the long-serving Tony Leon.
    "But change is what you have to do in order to cultivate new leaders for our party and our country. Change is a necessary path of growth, and a leader who holds on to power for to long, may end up by destroying that what he or she has taken so long to build-up over so many years," Leon said to delegates during the congress.
    The tough-talking white mayor of Cape Town Helen Zille won by a landslide to take over leadership of a party that, while the country's official opposition, is often regarded as little more than a political side-show next to the ANC.
    Zille now faces the challenge of moving the DA beyond a traditional white support base which in 2004 elections left it with just 12 percent of the vote against 70 percent for President Thabo Mbeki's ruling African National Congress (ANC).
    "Honoured by the trust you have placed in me, humbled by the challenge that lies ahead, inspired by the examples of those who have come before me, and delighted by the opportunity I have been given, I here accept nomination as your leader," Zille said during her acceptance speech.
    Dubbed "Godzille" for her no-nonsense style, Zille became the DA's most prominent figure last year when she led a coalition to take control of Cape Town, making it the only major South African city not under ANC control.
    "We must also confront the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we can take pride in a fact that the DA in Cape Town, and the Western Cape were the first to provide free anti-retroviral drugs. We can be proud that we stood to the AIDS denialists all over the world, but there is so much more to do," Zille continued.
    Zille said her coalition government showed South Africa has alternatives to the ANC, which has commanded the loyalty of most black voters since it guided the country from apartheid to democracy to all-race elections in 1994.
    "We in South Africa are building a nation together, we depend on each other, we actually really understand that, and the more we can get our economy to grow and ensure that there are real opportunities for everybody, the less we will have to band together in our racial groups, and think that it is to the benefit of one group, it must be against another," she added.
    Zille's victory comes as the ANC prepares to elect new leaders at a congress in December -- a race that will determine who leads the party into the next general elections in 2009.
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