\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"Copy](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/90adf_1793537367.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
Handout<\/p>\n
The DA chief strategist, Ryan Coetzee, whos been headhunted to work for British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
The DA will be without its chief strategist when campaigning gets under way for the 2014 elections \u2013 but Ryan Coetzee, who\u2019s been headhunted to work for British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, says the party won\u2019t suffer. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe DA\u2019s strategy is set,\u201d said Coetzee. <\/p>\n
He told The Mercury yesterday that he expected to leave SA in the next two weeks, once his work visa came through. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe [the DA] plan way in advance \u2013 there\u2019s a clear idea of what the DA\u2019s going to do and who is going to be doing what. So the DA isn\u2019t going to be compromised \u2013 and I will also not be all that far away.\u201d <\/p>\n
Coetzee\u2019s departure, it is understood, has left party leader Helen Zille \u201cnot overjoyed\u201d and its announcement took staff by surprise. <\/p>\n
However, the news could be celebrated in Luthuli House, for Coetzee was largely behind the electoral gains made by the DA \u2013 especially during the 2009 local government elections. <\/p>\n
Coetzee said talks with Clegg\u2019s office got under way in earnest in July when he first confided the news of his potential departure to Zille and two party heavyweights. <\/p>\n
The initial approach came from the Liberal Democrats leader\u2019s chief of staff, Jonny Oates, whom Coetzee has known ever since Oates was sent to SA by the Westminster Foundation as part of a project to help the first democratic parliament get up and running. <\/p>\n
Polls have shown Clegg\u2019s party has suffered a significant decline in support since it formed a ruling coalition with David Cameron\u2019s Tory Party. <\/p>\n
As Clegg\u2019s director of strategy, he will have to help the |Liberal Democrats \u201cnavigate its path from here to end of parliament [and the 2015 general election] in a way that takes voters along with them\u201d. <\/p>\n
\t <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"sign](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/20167_sign-up.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n