Makashule Gana has today resigned both as a member of the Democratic Alliance and as a member of the Gauteng legislature. He spoke to TimesLIVE contributor and analyst Eusebius McKaiser about the reasons behind this decision.
Gana has been a member of the party for twenty years, and occupied many leadership and governance positions during that time. He has served as DA Youth leader, deputy federal chairperson, and as an elections campaign manager. He has been a councillor representing the party in Johannesburg, as well as serving as a member of parliament (national assembly and national council of provinces).
In a wide-ranging interview on Eusebius on TimesLIVE, Gana argues that the DA is no longer interested in growth, but is focusing only on consolidation of its existing electoral support base. He cites several by-elections in recent times, including in Nelson Mandela Bay, where the party had not contested. Gana claims that these examples are exemplary of a party that no longer has ambition, and therefore could not unseat the ANC.
When pressure tested by McKaiser as to why a party he had been a part of for two decades, including his own occupation of senior leadership positions within it, could suddenly be described as not appealing to a wide-ranging demographic of voters, Gana claims that there is a growing gap between what the party claims it is about and how it actually behaves politically.