ATHOL Trollip says he has returned to the Eastern Cape to lead the DA to victory in Nelson Mandela Bay and to balance the scales in Buffalo City Metro to a 40-60% DA- ANC split.
At 49, he imagines his current political trajectory will see him depart as DA provincial leader in his early to mid-50s.
Trollip returned from Cape Town last week after being unseated in a mid-term internal election as parliamentary leader by Lindiwe Mazibuko and an unstimulating time as shadow minister of rural development and agrarian reform.
He fills a slot in the Bhisho legislature left by the death of DA MPL Pine Pienaar last month, and takes over as DA leader in the legislature from Bobby Stevenson.
Trollip was elected Eastern Cape DA leader in March 2012.
He arrived in East London on Friday sporting a solid Argus Cycle Tour race time of 4:51.
His first stop was strife-torn Sterkspruit where DA leader and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille launched the DA’s 2014 general election campaign.
Trollip, a Winterberg farm boy, speaks Xhosa fluently, and with more finesse since joining the Bhisho legislature 12 years ago.
He is trying to put Cape Town behind him, but says he will be punting the DA’s track record of governance in that city and province to service-delivery starved Eastern Cape voters.
He says: “The DA will win the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in 2016” even though his personal campaign focus will be Transkei, where 16 DA councillors have been voted in, up from only two prior to 2011.
He expects the DA to easily win back its status as the official opposition in the Bhisho legislature from COPE, which he says is mired in leadership squabbles and lacking a public and media profile and political identity.
The DA is fast becoming the significant “other party” nationally and provincially, he adds.
While former Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela, who joined the DA recently from the ANC, would canvas in former Ciskei, Trollip will have one foot in the Nelson Mandela Bay electoral drive and the other in Transkei focusing on land and service delivery.
The 100th anniversary of the 1913 Land Act would be deeply felt by many in the province and an ANC facing a 20-year “post- revolutionary itch”, would be campaigning hard on this emotional issue.
But “as a farmer with a deep connect to rural areas” Trollip feels confident his inclusive campaign in the rural areas – “for all people” – will have an edge over the ANC party pitch of “our people” introduced by presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.
Trollip appears to be happy to be back in the saddle, travelling around the province peddling his “unique style of politics” and his bicycle as he trains for the 230km Trans-Bavians race on August 17. —-
Trollip to use rural roots to gain ground
At 49, he imagines his current political trajectory will see him depart as DA provincial leader in his early to mid-50s.
Trollip returned from Cape Town last week after being unseated in a mid-term internal election as parliamentary leader by Lindiwe Mazibuko and an unstimulating time as shadow minister of rural development and agrarian reform.
He fills a slot in the Bhisho legislature left by the death of DA MPL Pine Pienaar last month, and takes over as DA leader in the legislature from Bobby Stevenson.
Trollip was elected Eastern Cape DA leader in March 2012.
He arrived in East London on Friday sporting a solid Argus Cycle Tour race time of 4:51.
His first stop was strife-torn Sterkspruit where DA leader and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille launched the DA’s 2014 general election campaign.
Trollip, a Winterberg farm boy, speaks Xhosa fluently, and with more finesse since joining the Bhisho legislature 12 years ago.
He is trying to put Cape Town behind him, but says he will be punting the DA’s track record of governance in that city and province to service-delivery starved Eastern Cape voters.
He says: “The DA will win the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in 2016” even though his personal campaign focus will be Transkei, where 16 DA councillors have been voted in, up from only two prior to 2011.
He expects the DA to easily win back its status as the official opposition in the Bhisho legislature from COPE, which he says is mired in leadership squabbles and lacking a public and media profile and political identity.
The DA is fast becoming the significant “other party” nationally and provincially, he adds.
While former Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela, who joined the DA recently from the ANC, would canvas in former Ciskei, Trollip will have one foot in the Nelson Mandela Bay electoral drive and the other in Transkei focusing on land and service delivery.
The 100th anniversary of the 1913 Land Act would be deeply felt by many in the province and an ANC facing a 20-year “post- revolutionary itch”, would be campaigning hard on this emotional issue.
But “as a farmer with a deep connect to rural areas” Trollip feels confident his inclusive campaign in the rural areas – “for all people” – will have an edge over the ANC party pitch of “our people” introduced by presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.
Trollip appears to be happy to be back in the saddle, travelling around the province peddling his “unique style of politics” and his bicycle as he trains for the 230km Trans-Bavians race on August 17. —-
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