DA inherits ANC's problems

Will the DA survive the two centres of power when supposed friends are leaders of opposing factions in the DA?

- Sydney Majoko

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once warned: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

The governing partner of the ANC in the government of national unity (GNU), the DA should have been careful over the years that it was fighting the ANC as the official opposition that it did not become that which it feared the most about the ANC: a factional party which loses sight of its main goal of existence, becoming just a tool of the dominant faction.

DA federal chair Helen Zille has been at pains trying to extricate herself from being viewed as the power behind the throne of the leader of the DA over the years.

With John Steenhuisen having announced he will not seek reelection to the position, Zille has been quoted as saying it is laughable for anyone to suggest she is behind the change.

But history suggests otherwise.