Article by political analyst Ebrahim Fakir.

Notwithstanding the need for racial diversity within the DA, Athol Trollip is the better candidate for continuing as DA Parliamentary leader, rather than the DA electing Lindiwe Mazibuko to the position. In spite of the tsunami of support for Mazibuko within the DA as a shoe in for the position, the reasons for supporting her appear misplaced. That Mazibuko is confident, competent, smart and able is not at issue. She undoubtedly is. She is also a young black woman – which is an asset, but it appears to be the sole reason why some people in the DA support her candidature. This is equally misplaced. The real question that ought to be asked, is whether Mazibuko would be a gifted confident, competent, smart and able young black woman who will be effective in calling the shots as leader of the opposition in Parliament? The answer would be a no.

Effectiveness in this position requires someone confident, competent, smart, able and experienced in politics, parliamentary process and procedure, management, administration and with executive skills – not merely a young, black, gifted, accomplished woman with potential to do greater things. It requires someone who already has done great things, especially in Parliament. The DA desperately needs a young black gifted woman, along with subtle shifts in the tone of its politics and primary concerns at leadership level. But it needs this more desperately outside of Parliament instead of in it. Incidentally, outside Parliament is where Mazibuko has already proven herself to be more effective.

It is also not obvious that having Mazibuko serve as the DA’s Parliamentary Leader would increase the DA’s racial diversity profile at leadership level. For one, the role of Parliamentary leader is an essentially insular, institutional political management role and is a less high profile one than that of a national leader outside Parliament. Though Parliamentary politics is intimately and intricately linked to broader ideological and policy debates in the broad political discourse, the role of parliamentary leader is skewed to a greater degree to procedure and process with much less political visibility than may be assumed attached to it. It is a role that is less explicitly policy oriented and ideological than say that of a deputy leader of a Party nationally.

In many ways, leading a party in Parliament demands translating (instead of setting) political and policy goals, which are given institutional political effect through the use of Parliamentary committees and debates and using the instruments of Parliamentary procedure and process. The role also involves managing and administering internal party processes through providing a political line of march in the party caucus, deploying MP’s to Parliamentary committees and constituencies, supervising them and their work and providing oversight over the party’s whips, managing micro politics within the Parliamentary caucus, managing people and budgets within the caucus as well as in the party’s administration and support staff. There is then the outwardly institutional role in dealing with rules and other special administrative and management committees of Parliament, dealing with the Speakers office and the Parliamentary Secretariat and bureaucracy. Though the position comes with considerable power to decide who sits on which Parliamentary committee and who goes on which parliamentary trips, who is deployed to attend to which matters and debates, it can either be used to maximum effect and impact on policy, legislation, accountability and oversight in parliament, or the less initiated would simply use these powers as an instrument of patronage. To use these wide powers and influence to best effect, involves an intimate knowledge of people and their interests and strengths. Given the onerous nature of the role of Parliamentary leader, it is unlikely that Mazibuko in this position will enhance her own, or the DA’s diversified leadership profile outside Parliament to best effect.

Nor would Mazibuko in the position of Parliamentary leader represent an empowered black woman in the DA playing “Baas”. Quite the contrary, catapulting her into a position requiring the skills and depth of experience she may not yet have had the chance to accumulate may be setting her up to fail. In addition to appearing tokenistic and patronising, the DA may end up sacrificing its effectiveness as parliamentary political opposition for expressing a token gesture. Race matters a great deal in South Africa but it matters more in the DA. A serious approach to race, however, differs substantially from the manner in which it is assumed it matters, and is currently being addressed by the DA. Race in the DA, and in perceptions of how much or how little it matters in the DA, are less about simple demographic representivity or symbolic tokenism. Race matters in society in much more substantive and structural ways and ought to be dealt with more substantively, rather than merely representationally within the DA. This would imply recruiting and seeing in leadership positions black (and white) DA members with serious political nous, expertise and experience playing a decisive, powerful and meaningful roles in shaping the nature and character of an appropriately contextualised liberalism in South Africa and in shaping the DA as a Party. This is where the real substantive and race debate in the party ought to lie. There are several such characters in the Party, some of whom have the requisite depth of expertise and experience and had considerable political management experience in Representative institutions who would at once better fulfill the ambition of diversifying the DA’s leadership profile and simultaneously rooting the DA’s political outlook in accord with the concerns of themajority of South Africans while also having a ‘darkie’ in the DA calling the shots, at least in Parliament. That these individuals may not have availed themselves as candidates is a legitimate defence. But then, surely it is the role of a leadership who claims to be committed to substantive tonal and racial transformation in the DA to encourage the candidature, if not prevail, upon the skilled, experienced and respected black members of the DA to stand for election for Parliamentary leader and to advance their profiles in pursuit of this.

Mazibuko, being a young black woman who appears to have imbibed the confrontational and adversarial (some might say whiny) style of politics that has characterised the DA may prove to be a liability to the DA in Parliament rather than an asset. Sounding more confident, articulate and polished than the average South African (black or white) has already drawn the chagrin (and jealousy of some governing party MP’s) and though misogynistic, it is an analytic reality that a young black woman like Mazibuko, from a party unpopular in governing party circles as it is, is more likely to receive a hostile reception rather than a hospitable one. This is likely to entrench conflictual and confrontational parliamentary politics rather than a more productive and engaging politics, which Trollop has tried hard to make work, without sacrificing the need to be tough in opposition. Trollop’s hard work, which has seen majority party MPs more willing to engage and consider opposition views may be undermined, taking parliamentary deliberations, whether in plenary or committee, back to an era where a closed and tetchy majority party closes ranks and uses its majority to simply ram decisions through. In the end this will make a mockery of Parliament’s deliberative function.

Clearly, based on the DA’s challenge of blackening itself in visage and tone, the pressure to have more leaders of colour is immense. However, a key consideration would be whether this needs to come at the cost of sacrifice the accumulated expertise and experience that the incumbent has accumulated? In any event, there is still a crucial and critical role in our politics for middle-aged white men, especially ones who are more in tune with (especially with black) communities on the ground. Trollip has strong organisational capacity, institutional experience, political clout and enjoys a greater amount of gravitas and respect among key Parliamentary constituencies with both ruling party and opposition politicians and bureaucrats. Most importantly, Trollip has a keen understanding of the role of opposition, specifically within Representative Institutions. A key opposition function is conducting oversight over the ruling party and Trollip has better experience when it comes to Parliamentary Committee portfolios. This requires an ability to collect, synthesise and analyse vast amounts of detailed information, which is then used to engage the governing Party, rather than just use the information negatively as a stick with which to beat the ruling party with, a style which Mazibuko appears more attuned to. Most fundamentally, Trollip’s politics appear more adaptable, flexible and progressive, which brings together the DA’s political and ideological project with a keen understanding of the instrumentality required to give them effect. His ability to analyse social and political problems and how to solve them appears better than Mazibuko’s.

An additional dimension for the DA caucus to consider is a clear need to infuse the DA and ID merger with the appropriate political content, while simultaneously managing the micro politics that is likely to arise from the merger. Institutional memory, within the Party and its various manifestations is necessary asset in the position of Parliamentary leader. Trollip is one of the few people who has seen the DA through its meander from the Progressive Federal Party, mutation into the Democratic Party, the aborted merger with the then National Party - some of whose remnants co-exist uncomfortably in their recidivism with the intendedliberalism of the DA. Adding the most recent merger with ID, one wonders whether the DA could afford additional risk to the ones already taken.

In electing a Parliamentary leader, the DA has to be cautious not have style triumph over substance. That Mazibuko has infused the DA with energy and profile is an excellent recommendation for her running for the position of deputy leader of the party outside Parliament or as deputy Parliamentary leader, to learn the intricacies and nuances of Parliamentary politics, process, procedure and accumulate the necessary policy, executive and administrative skills to be effective in the job. Right now, Trollip is the more meritorious candidate with Mazibuko worthy of consideration for a leadership position in the party outside of Parliament.