Helen Zille nearly started her own political party

Two decades ago, the relatively new Democratic Alliance (DA) was at a crossroads: becoming a party of liberalism or facing a ‘conservative takeover.’

The risk of a ‘conservative takeover’ from the old New National Party (NNP) prompted then DA Cape Town mayor to mull forming a reestablished Democratic Party (DP) to contest the polls against the DA.

This was revealed by the late DA Federal Council Chairperson James Selfe, who wrote several chapters and overviews on his 43 years in politics for a memoir.

However, his written story was left incomplete when he passed away in May 2024 after a life in politics, having joined the Progressive Party at the age of 18.

Selfe was also Shadow Minister of Correctional Services, and a key figure in drafting the country’s democratic Constitution while pioneering opposition efforts against corruption through landmark legal challenges.

In a series of memoir extracts published by the Daily Maverick, Selfe unpacked one of the many turbulant times for the DA – the 2007 party leadership race where he does not shy away from his contentious relationship with Zille.

Zille’s political career started after the 1994 democratic election, maintaining that the country needed good political opposition.

Selfe said that he had arranged for her to meet leader Tony Leon in 1998 when she expressed interest in becoming a public representative for the then DP, now the DA.

She secured one of five DA seats in the Western Cape Legislative election in 1999 and became the Member of the Executive Council for Education.

“She soon built a stellar reputation for hard work and strategic vision that led her to excel in the Provincial Legislature,” said Selfe.

Between 2003 and 2007, when she held office as chairperson of the DA’s Western Cape Metro Region, Selfe said that Zille became “known for tough leadership, particularly in dealing with the racial nationalists in the party.”

After winning the Cape Town mayoralty in 2006, Zille set her sights on the leadership of the DA.

This, according to the former Federal Council Chairperson, was meant to seize control of the party and save it from the “liberal drift,” towards conservatism.

Ultimately, Zille became leader of the DA, but “if her leadership bid failed, she planned to re-establish the DP to oppose the DA at the polls.”

Zille confirms past plans to ‘save DA from conservative forces’

Asked by the Daily Maverick after she became leader in 2007, she told Selfe that new party was very nearly formed on several occasions, Zille said “yes, indeed, that is true.”

“We did discuss forming a liberal party on several occasions, as the battle for the soul of the DA raged.”

“Certainly, if the DA were entirely captured by the most conservative forces of the old NNP, there would have been no place for liberals in the party.”

“We would have had to start another party. We were clear about that,” added Zille.

Zille, now Chairperson of the DA’s Federal Council, said she was leading a large group of liberals who were worried about the party’s drift towards the NNP.

She claimed that she led an effort to unify the DA’s former DP and NNP factions, but the NNP were beginning to execute an internal coup in the Western Cape.

The modern DA traces its roots to liberal opposition to the National Party, beginning with the Progressive Party in the 1950s. Through mergers, it became the Progressive Federal Party and later the DP in 1989.

The NNP, successor to the National Party, tried to rebrand as a moderate conservative party but failed and later allied with the ANC.

The DP became official opposition in 1999 under Tony Leon, partly by attracting former NNP voters.

Early merger attempts with the NNP and Federal Alliance formed the DA but largely failed when the NNP withdrew.

As the NNP disintegrated, many of its former leaders who hadn’t joined the ANC or UDM migrated to the DA, strengthening its base, particularly in the Western Cape.