The DA’s leader, Mmusi Maimane, has nominated himself to be the party’s candidate for premier of the Western Cape. There is nothing odd about this at first glance. Helen Zille, the incumbent, served as national party leader and as premier. Why shouldn’t Maimane? But this simplistic view fails to acknowledge the complex dynamics that have played out in the DA over the past five years. Having secured the Western Cape beachhead, the party set its sights on national expansion. It had been able to secure a majority in the Western Cape by expanding its traditional white support base to include coloured voters, who were suspicious of the ANC and pronouncements by some of its leaders that suggested they were not "black enough". This largely middle-class constituency was sufficient to achieve critical mass and build a solid DA base in that province. But in order to achieve success on the national stage, it had to send a signal that it was a party of more than just coloured and white South Af...
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