Within weeks after DA leader John Steenhuisen was temporarily absolved of allegations of abusing the party credit card, DA former finance chief Dion George resigned yesterday from the party he served for many years at different levels.
An analyst said George jumped before he was pushed because he realised he wouldn’t win the election against Steenhuisen at the party’s elective congress in April.
“It is clear he lost the battle within the DA against Steenhuisen,” said André Duvenhage, political analyst at North-West University.
Analysts say George jumped before he was pushed
“Also, he would have lost his own position in finance at the election because I believe there is mobilisation against George.
“He decided to make a clean break with the DA.
“He read the process and decided to leave.”
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George resigned as a DA member and party member of parliament.
In his resignation statement, he made allegations of criminality by some DA leaders, allegedly including Steenhuisen around the canned lion hunting industry.
Independent commentator Doctor Tshwale saw George’s sudden departure as the beginning of the DA’s implosion and a victory for Steenhuisen.
Beginning of DA’s implosion and Steenhuisen’s victory
“The DA will lose some of its key members or even experience a group walk away because they are not all on the same page on the government of national unity (GNU).”
George was axed by President Cyril Ramaphosa as minister of forestry, fisheries and environment, after a request from Steenhuisen last year.
He was replaced by Willie Aucamp, former DA spokesperson and Steenhuisen’s close ally.
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It’s understood that George was bitter after Steenhuisen requested Ramaphosa fire and replace him with Aucamp in November.
Steenhuisen has a way of working out his opponents, even after defeating them, whether in a leadership contest or a personal spat.
The federal leader always wins a duel while his challenger is sidelined and ultimately pressured to leave the party.
Steenhuisen always wins a duel
Earlier, party sources claimed the credit card issue was part of a plot by a powerful Cape Townbased clique that dominated the party and sidelined any non-Cape leader.
George alleged that he was fired for his stand against illicit wildlife trafficking.
Aucamp was allegedly linked to organised hunting groups, which George opposed as a minister.
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At some point, allegations of sexual misconduct were made against George, but he denied the claim and threatened to sue for defamation of character. Tshwale said some within the DA had never imagined the party being in a coalition with the ANC.
Others are overwhelmed by being junior to the ANC in government.
But some harbour the idea that to save the country, they have to work closely with the ANC to push for the implosion of the ANC-led tripartite alliance, strengthen the constitutionalist element within the ANC and defend the country’s liberal constitution and democracy.
DA’s long-term strategy
“This is an unravelling of the long-term DA strategy,” Tshwale said. “It’s happening quicker inside than in the target, the ANC.
“The fights mean the DA can’t cope with pressure in the belly of government. It’s failing to manage the contradictions.” The DA is historically an opposition party.
“One might say the push for government in some quarters among some of its members is a betrayal of its historical cause,” Tshwale said.
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“This is so much embedded in the statement of George – that the DA seems to be captured by the ANC.
“He’s expressing a feeling of defeat of its principles and politics in the GNU.”
He argued that the DA’s long-term strategy has been to merge with the constitutionalists within the ANC to keep what it refers to as anarchists out of the government.
George expresses feeling of defeat of DA’s principles
“The manifesto of the KZN coalition government is the pilot of the objective of the strategy.
“Accordingly, the DA has had to stay in to guard ANC so that it does not fall into the hands of anarchists, so it gives way to the reformed DA to occupy the centrist space in the political landscape.”
Analysts such as Sandile Swana have said the GNU is a project of big business which wants the moderates within the ANC symbolised by the party’s veterans and the DA to cooperate to prevent radical parties like the EFF and Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party from forming a coalition with the ANC, or joining the GNU.
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Swana said the GNU’s work was based on a programme designed by big business.
According to analyst Xolani Dube, big business’ long game was to bring Steenhuisen and Ramaphosa together.
He said big business was concerned that, despite the two parties receiving funding from them, they worked separately and often against each other.
