One of the youngest Democratic Alliance leaders in parliament, Nqaba Bhanga, has endorsed both Mmusi Maimane and Athol Trollip as the party’s “winning combination – if people are serious about the growth of the DA”.
Bhanga was speaking to the Daily Dispatch on the eve of the party’s highly contested Federal Congress at the Boardwalk Convention Centre in Port Elizabeth this weekend.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro is one of the most hotly contested areas in the country between the ANC and DA.
Maimane and Wilmot James will battle it out for the top DA post which will be left vacant when Helen Zille delivers her last speech as party leader.
Eastern Cape DA leader Trollip will contest against Masizole Mnqasela and Makashule Gana for the DA federal chairman position.
Bhanga, a former ANC Youth League leader in Nelson Mandela Metro who joined COPE and became its national youth president before joining the DA last year, said he was firmly behind both Maimane and Trollip.
Soweto-born Maimane, 35, is up against James, 61, an academic turned politician.
Bhanga said he chose Maimane over James because “the DA has realised that a new leadership will have to come up, and that leadership is becoming younger and younger.
“Maimane appeals at all levels. If you go to universities, you talk to business people, the impoverished, the unemployed and the working class can relate to him,” said Bhanga.
But at such a young age, he said, Maimane would have to work with a more experienced DA leader.
Trollip, 61, cut his teeth in politics at the age of 16 when he joined the Progressive Federal Party. He then joined the Democratic Party in 1999 before it was renamed the DA.
“If you blend Maimane with an experienced politician like Athol Trollip who is able to communicate in at least three official South African languages including Xhosa, that combination will get the DA to greater heights,” he said.
Bhanga credited Trollip for growing the DA in the Eastern Cape.
But Bhanga’s endorsement for Trollip comes as no surprise. In a statement Trollip made last year when announcing Bhanga as a new DA recruit, he said they shared “common ground on the vast majority of issues.”
“He shares our vision to bring change and jobs to South Africa.”
Bhanga said Trollip managed to grow the DA in Nelson Mandela Bay and turned the DA in the Bhisho legislature from being just an opposition party to the official opposition after the May 2014 elections. — zineg@dispatch.co.za
Bhanga backing for Trollip, Maimane
Bhanga was speaking to the Daily Dispatch on the eve of the party’s highly contested Federal Congress at the Boardwalk Convention Centre in Port Elizabeth this weekend.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro is one of the most hotly contested areas in the country between the ANC and DA.
Maimane and Wilmot James will battle it out for the top DA post which will be left vacant when Helen Zille delivers her last speech as party leader.
Eastern Cape DA leader Trollip will contest against Masizole Mnqasela and Makashule Gana for the DA federal chairman position.
Bhanga, a former ANC Youth League leader in Nelson Mandela Metro who joined COPE and became its national youth president before joining the DA last year, said he was firmly behind both Maimane and Trollip.
Soweto-born Maimane, 35, is up against James, 61, an academic turned politician.
Bhanga said he chose Maimane over James because “the DA has realised that a new leadership will have to come up, and that leadership is becoming younger and younger.
“Maimane appeals at all levels. If you go to universities, you talk to business people, the impoverished, the unemployed and the working class can relate to him,” said Bhanga.
But at such a young age, he said, Maimane would have to work with a more experienced DA leader.
Trollip, 61, cut his teeth in politics at the age of 16 when he joined the Progressive Federal Party. He then joined the Democratic Party in 1999 before it was renamed the DA.
“If you blend Maimane with an experienced politician like Athol Trollip who is able to communicate in at least three official South African languages including Xhosa, that combination will get the DA to greater heights,” he said.
Bhanga credited Trollip for growing the DA in the Eastern Cape.
But Bhanga’s endorsement for Trollip comes as no surprise. In a statement Trollip made last year when announcing Bhanga as a new DA recruit, he said they shared “common ground on the vast majority of issues.”
“He shares our vision to bring change and jobs to South Africa.”
Bhanga said Trollip managed to grow the DA in Nelson Mandela Bay and turned the DA in the Bhisho legislature from being just an opposition party to the official opposition after the May 2014 elections. — zineg@dispatch.co.za
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