Mmusi Maimane on the DA losing support DA leader Mmusi Maimane visited the IEC national results centre 2 days after the national elections took place where he told journalists that despite supporters leaving the party, he would never compromise on the DA’s principles.<doc-sep>DA leader Mmusi Maimane has dominated trends lists since he apologised for the DA losing votes in the general election and shouldered the responsibility. "I can honestly state that I did my very best and gave everything of myself in the run-up to this election," he said. While DA federal chairperson Athol Trollip assured the party's supporters that Maimane would not be fired as the party's leader after the decline in support, people are still not sold. Taking to Twitter to weigh in on the issue, some accused the DA of using Maimane as a front, while others attributed his failure to blaming the ANC instead of giving voters reasons why they should have voted DA.<doc-sep>The DA says it is fully behind its leader Mmusi Maimane despite the party losing support in the May 8 general elections. The DA's federal executive on Monday met in Bruma, Johannesburg, to review the party's performance after bleeding support in all the provinces despite retaining the Western Cape. The party obtained 84 seats in the National Assembly, the second highest amount after the ruling ANC. However the seats were five less than what the DA had in 2014. It also lost its official opposition status to the EFF in Mpumalanga and in KwaZulu-Natal to the IFP. "Mr Maimane was elected in 2018, his term ends in 2021," said DA's federal chairperson Athol Trollip on Monday. Eyebrows were, however, raised when Maimane did not form part of the briefing.<doc-sep>PRETORIA — The Democratic Alliance was hoping to increase its support from the 22% they managed in 2014, but all indications are that they are not going to be able to replicate their previous national performance. The party’s leader Mmusi Maimane said at the IEC centre that he is proud that his party managed to retain the centre ground. There are rumours that his leadership may be challenged due to the lack in growth in support for the party. – Linda van Tilburg I’m grateful and I want to thank the people of this country. I want to especially thank all South Africans who voted for the DA. I am really, really proud of all of you. I am proud of the vision that you are standing for because exactly four years ago, I was elected leader of the DA and I’m proud of the mission we’ve embarked on. It’s a mission to build one South Africa for all. It was always a mission to say we will grow into communities we’ve never grown before and hold the centre of politics where Black, Indian, Coloured and White people can work together to realise the dreams of a prosperous nation. So, along with that, I’m proud that we’ve maintained that mandate. We’ve gone out to build in a universe where so many in the world will hark back to racial nationalism and a form of populism, which stayed the course. It’s an historic mission that this party has always been engaged with and it’s one that I am proud to continue and will continue. We are going to be taking this party forward to grow in more communities and grow in more areas because ultimately, it’s about holding the centre. It’s about making sure that citizens can work together. More than anything, I know that when we stepped into this election, we promised that in this place, South Africans need to be brave. They need to know that they’re standing before a liberation movement and one day, this country will enter into a post-liberation movement era. That is what this project is about. It’s about breaking the back of that so that one day, we can live with a party that contests against racial nationalism at its best. And therefore, what I think this election has been about is the realignment of politics. Love him, hate him Mmusi Maimane is an orator of note. He spoke with passion and love for South Africa and its people. He spoke for the youth and women. He articulated what the DA intends to deliver for South Africa. Viva Mmusi Maimane viva #DAfinalRally — Thebe Phoko (@thebe_phoko) May 4, 2019 It’s about bringing together a new centre ground that the DA will occupy and will continue to… There’s been a rise in nationalism and parties that stand for that (maybe) in some ways, have been rewarded but it doesn’t mean the project is wrong. It means that you have to pursue it, regardless of what happens. And what I’m looking forward to in the next while, is building with a team of South Africans that are diverse. Where votes have been lost, we’re going to go back and work hard to get movers…gain more support because we’re the only alternative in this country that’s holding the centre together. I want to say that the thing I celebrate about these election results is the fact that we demonstrated that we’re a diverse race; that it doesn’t matter where we’ve come from. I just got the latest projections that say that in fact, even in a place like Soweto where the DA was accustomed to only getting 5% of votes there – it’s getting 13-14% – details that show that it’s growing. To me, that tells me that we can grow in Soweto as we can in Sandton. That is a powerful mission. In a world where people are saying, “No. I want to stick to my own”, people are standing together in this election and I’m grateful for that. I want to say, “Yes, at times citizens will become worried”. As I said in our closing rally, “Yes, it is tough for South Africans. It is a tough time. The economy is in a terrible state. We’re growing at 0.8%. It’s why our mission of putting a job in every household has never been more important and that’s why I’m grateful that we will retain the Western Cape and here in Gauteng, we are challenging. As you can see, no-one can guarantee that the ANC will retain it’s outright majority and that’s because we must never fall prey to the lie that says that ‘in fact, only people who look like you, worship the same God as you, or speak the same language as you are the only ones who can protect your rights’. The facts are: people can work together. Nobody…no leader enters a race looking for a loss. No person goes into a tournament or a competition wanting to… You go and you win and you go, and you work hard. I’m proud of what the DA has done. We could have succumbed to populism narratives. We could have succumbed to forgetting our values but we’ve stuck to the course and we’ve gone full-tilt. Even though we’ve lost some votes, I can guarantee you that we held the centre. DA’s James Self tells 702 that as the party, they have to go back to the drawing board. He admits that some of DA’s supporters might have voted for VF Plus and the new political party, Good. He further states that at this point, he can’t tell whether Maimane will stay or go. — SITHOLEEXPRESS (@SthembisoMedia) May 10, 2019 As a party. We, as a party, will go back and work even harder to regain those votes and I will regain the project going forward because it is the project I’ve always been engaged with. It is a project that I will go and speak to everybody to say ‘let’s continue this mission’. We have shown that when we govern, life does get better. That’s why we can retain.<doc-sep>
DA leader Mmusi Maimane was missing in action at a DA press conference over his future following the official opposition's 1.4% decline in electoral support in the general election. The media conference followed a federal executive meeting hot on the heels of reports that the party's old guard was baying for Maimane's blood. However, during the media conference on Monday, DA federal council chairperson Athol Trollip said the party would take collective responsibility, adding that Maimane would remain put as party leader until the end of his term in 2021. According to Trollip, the party blamed its misfortunes at the polls on rising racial nationalism globally and its own "internal challenges". Asked what these "internal challenges" were, Trollip was not willing to share. He said the party would consult its provincial structures first. Said Trollip: "I know there has been a lot of speculation around the DA's performance and even speculation about our leader (Maimane) and I would like to read this statement that comes out of the federal executive from today's deliberations. "We were faced with internal challenges and significant changes in the political landscape - the rise of nationalism on both the right and left occurred. In short both externally and internally there were matters that we had to grapple with. These factors had a role to play in our electoral fortunes "As the members of the federal executive we all take responsibility for the outcome of these elections whether good or bad, that burden does not sit on the shoulders of any individual. "There has been much speculation about the future of our leader Mmusi Maimane and we would like to state that Maimane remains our leader until the next congress scheduled for 2021 and at that congress the party shall decide whether he continues as leader or not." Trollip also announced that the party would review its entire leadership structure. FedEx chairperson James Selfe said this was nothing new, as it had happened in 2004 during Tony Leon's tenure. "In 2004 we had a very thorough review of the party's systems and as a result of that we changed the way we selected candidates, we changed the way we evaluated public representatives, we changed the way in how our structures were represented," said Selfe. "What we want to do with this coming review is to see whether after that period, those systems are still appropriate for the bigger party that we are at the moment and to see whether they are appropriate from the different constituency to that we had in 2004 so we will be reviewing all our systems and all our structures."