Mmusi Maimane: doomed to fail
27 September 2022
South African voters must have watched with some scepticism the formation by Mmusi Maimane of yet another political party. Known as "Bosa" (Build One South Africa), it might just as well be called "Bozo" (Google for meaning) since against the background of 48 parties that contested the last election, a 49th is somewhat underwhelming and a 50th, (Songezo Zibi), seems likely.
Mmusi is a nice man. I like him a lot. When he was the leader of the DA, I supported him from the start of his leadership until he resigned. After the small setback of the general election, he appointed a committee to tell him what went wrong. The committee told him his weak leadership was the problem.
Instead of telling them to go to Hell or at least manfully doing a Colin Eglin and stepping aside to make way for another leader, he resigned both as leader and as a member of the party that had made him famous. He wrapped himself in Christ-like robes and accused his successor of being a Judas. Hugely significantly, he did not join Herman Mashaba's new outfit despite having embraced Herman publicly as he too left the DA.
Mmusi said he would "restore power to the people," supporting independents at every level of public life. He ignored the fact that independents have always had the right to stand for local government for the past generation. Hardly any have ever been elected in any of the larger towns and cities and especially not in the Metros. Now he has changed his mind. Suddenly, a new political party is born.
If Bosa wins some ANC votes in 2024, it will have done South Africa a service. After all, the aim is to reduce the ANC to a minority vote and replace it with a new government, closing out the ANC and the EFF. A new, broad coalition government, led by the DA, will take over. Bosa will find out that without a huge organisation spread throughout the country, it will struggle to do much more than elect a handful of MPs. The DA contested every one of the thousands of council wards in the country last year, giving it an enormous electoral advantage in fighting an election campaign.
If Mmusi ends up taking a few thousand DA votes it will serve little purpose other than to weaken the opposition and persuade more voters to stay away from the polls.
Because of his charm and his personal qualities, Mmusi was given the proverbial silver spoon by the DA. Perhaps when this latest frolic ends in disappointment, he will come home to where he belongs: the DA is the most racially diverse party in South Africa (by far), and it stands for good things, as does he.
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and a former ambassador to Thailand. His website is douglasgibsonsouthafrica. com
This article first appeared in The Star
