A legacy of leadership
The Democratic Alliance did not become the party it is today by accident. It was built over many years by leaders who each strengthened this party in different ways, often in difficult times, and against the prevailing tide.
Our party’s roots run deep. From the formation of the Progressive Party sixty-seven years ago – and Helen Suzman’s often lonely fight as a liberal voice standing against Apartheid – to the Democratic Party which played an outsized role in shaping our Constitution and our new South Africa.
One of the architects of that document, when he was even younger than I am now, was Tony Leon.
Later, as leader, Tony went on to take a party with just 1.7% of the vote and make it electable by turning it into a fearless party of opposition.
At a time when many believed that South Africa did not need a strong opposition, Tony insisted that our democracy could not succeed without one.
I remember watching Tony debate President Thabo Mbeki when I was just sixteen years old.
While President Mbeki eloquently defended the brutality of the Mugabe regime and denied the truth of the AIDS pandemic, Tony stood up and said what others were unwilling to say: that defending Mugabe was indefensible, and AIDS was a crisis causing untold loss and grief.
I remember watching on tv – completely mesmerised by the quality of the debate. Here were two leaders engaging not in a war of words, but in a battle of ideas, about the future and the values that should guide our country.
Tony understood that democracy required someone willing to speak uncomfortable truths. Someone willing to say what others will not say, and to challenge power.
Tony Leon laid the foundation for the modern DA by proving that opposition matters, and that principled opposition is never unpatriotic.
On the contrary: principled opposition is loyalty to the Constitution.
After Tony came Helen.
In 2004, I attended a DA Youth meeting in Bonteheuwel. At the time, I was still a schoolboy, trying to understand what the DA was all about.
There I remember meeting someone I had never heard of before: a Member of Parliament called Helen Zille.
We spoke for a long time that afternoon about politics, and activism, and the work she was doing in communities across the Cape Flats.
I remember walking away from that conversation slightly star-struck: it was the first time I had ever met a real-life Member of Parliament.
But what struck me more was Helen’s ability to connect with people. She was as comfortable speaking to residents on their doorsteps, as she was debating in the National Assembly.
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The following year, in 2005, I began my studies at UCT.
And when I arrived there, I discovered something surprising: there was no alternative at all to the ANC-aligned student wing called SASCO. No opposition. No competing ideas.
Tony Leon had taught us that democracy cannot function without opposition.
So it seemed obvious to me that something had to be done about this.
So we started a DA students organisation on campus, and DASO was born.
Now I wish I could tell you that we came out of nowhere and swept the floor with our opponents. But let me tell you, friends, our first election was a disaster. We were thoroughly defeated.
That experience taught me an important lesson about politics and about life.
There are moments when the cause you believe in suffers defeat. When the odds seem overwhelming. When it seems easier to walk away.
But those are the moments when the commitment to our cause matters most.
Theodore Roosevelt once spoke about the man in the arena – the person who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, but who commits themselves to a worthy cause.
That idea shaped my political journey from early on.
So we built on our lessons, and we worked hard, with focus and discipline. The next year we won two seats, and just a year later DASO won the SRC Presidency for the first time on any campus in SA.
I saw then that the idea that the ANC was the natural and permanent party of government – that its dominance was inevitable – was simply not true.
The ANC could be beaten.
Around that same time, Helen Zille was demonstrating the very same lesson on a much larger stage.
In 2007 I was here among the crowds at Gallagher Estate in this very hall when Helen Zille was elected leader of the DA.
Under her leadership our party transformed itself from a party known as a strong opposition, to a party that could govern.
In cities, towns, and provinces the DA began to show South Africans something new.
That good government was possible, and institutions could work.
That public money could be spent on the people it belongs to.
And that a government that serves people with integrity can restore hope where decline once seemed inevitable.
Helen Zille proved that strong opposition is not enough.
A party must also prove that it can govern.
Helen did this – and not without a fight.
