LETTER: Politics 101: Bad-mouthing your opponent will not lead to success

Ousted DA Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse has attacked DA leader John Steenhuisen again (“Ousted Joburg mayor to take on John Steenhuisen as DA leader,” January 30). This time she openly said South Africans wouldn’t vote for a DA led by Steenhuisen. Recently, in an interview on Newzroom Afrika, she seemingly suggested that Steenhuisen lacked the capacity to run the organisation.

If Phalatse thinks these cheap antics will enhance her leadership campaign ahead of the DA’s elective congress in April, she is terribly wrong. On the contrary, they will discredit her and expose her as a petty competitor.

Phalatse can and must learn a fundamental principle of political marketing: successful campaigns are not premised on bad-mouthing the opponent. They are premised on proving that you, as the competitor, have something better to offer.

As she later noted in the interview, she needs to prove that she “brings more to the table”, and stop bad-mouthing Steenhuisen.

Ayanda Sakhile Zulu
Via email

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