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![\"NM_Tony0\"](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/eef7d_2129674496.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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inlsa<\/p>\n
Tony Leon<\/p>\n
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Gaye Davis <\/p>\n
Political Bureau<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n THE DA cannot be \u201cjust a patronage machine\u201d that scoops up disaffected ANC supporters and should provide an alternative that is \u201cnot just another version of the ruling party\u201d, its former leader has said. <\/p>\n Tony Leon, who returned late last year from his posting as South Africa\u2019s ambassador in Argentina, was speaking at a meeting of the party\u2019s Sandton branch in Joburg yesterday. <\/p>\n \u201cObviously politics is crucially about numbers. But as the party grows and as some outsize personalities, some carrying a great deal of baggage\u2026 are attracted to its ranks, just be sure that the welcome mat is also marked with some clear red lines which old and new recruits cross at their peril,\u201d Leon\u2019s prepared text said. <\/p>\n Outlining key challenges facing the party he led from 1999 until handing over the reins to Helen Zille in 2007, Leon said the DA\u2019s core constituency \u2013 minorities \u2013 was diminishing. <\/p>\n \u201cThe last election revealed that the DA has unchallenged support among minority voters; the last census showed that this is a reducing bloc of supporters,\u201d Leon said. <\/p>\n Growing DA support in a \u201cnew market\u201d, among the majority of South Africans, while \u201cretaining faith with core values and old voters\u201d was not a new dilemma, but was now \u201cmore urgent\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cIn order to attract more votes from black South Africans the party has to close the distance between itself and the majority, something which has far more to do with tone, familiarity, identity and other intangibles and less to do with objective policy propositions.\u201d <\/p>\n There would be \u201ca temptation to soft-pedal certain propositions in order not to scare off new potential voters\u201d, Leon said, warning that \u201cculture\u201d was a \u201cpolitical quicksand\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cIf I were the current DA leadership\u2026 I would not get into a bargain of \u2018Africanness\u2019 et al. Make your point and move on,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n A second challenge was whether the DA could retain its identity and core values and attract new supporters, or whether there would be an \u201cautomatic blurring of vision and values\u201d as its support grew. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n More competitive politics was \u201cprofoundly important\u201d for the country\u2019s \u201cdemocratic health\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" inlsa Tony Leon Gaye Davis Political Bureau THE DA cannot be \u201cjust a patronage machine\u201d that scoops up disaffected ANC supporters and should provide an alternative that is \u201cnot just another version of the ruling party\u201d, its former leader has said. Tony Leon, who returned late last year from his posting as South Africa\u2019s ambassador […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-17550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}