Riyaz Patel
Mmusi Maimane has resigned from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and as the party’s Member of Parliament.
Maimane tweeted the announcement Thursday morning.
He resigned as party leader on Wednesday but had indicated he would remain party leader in Parliament.
It’s been a bruising week for the DA, with crisis meetings convened in Cape Town and Johannesburg Thursday to regroup.
Helen Zille’s election as the party’s Federal Council chair the weekend, appeared to be the catalyst for Maimane and two other senior DA members to walk away from the party.
Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba started the ball rolling by announcing his resignation Monday, saying, “I cannot reconcile myself with a group of people who believe that race is irrelevant in the discussion of inequality and poverty in South Africa in 2019.”
When Maimane resigned as party leader Wednesday, he said the party was no longer best suited to carry the idea of one South Africa for all.
Maimane’s resignation was followed by that of DA chair Athol Trollip.
They slammed the organisation for deviating from its promises of building a non-racial South Africa.
Meanwhile, the DA Chief Whip in Parliament, John Steenhuisen, became an unintended casualty of Maimane’s resignation as MP.
