“I can confirm that I submitted my name for nomination. I want to ensure that the DA team in Parliament continues to do the important work that millions of South Africans have sent us here, to build an alternative to the ANC and to hold the government accountable, ”he said on Friday afternoon. .
Steenhuisen is currently an ordinary DA MP after his role as DA chief whip also expired on Thursday morning when Maimane announced his resignation as DA’s parliamentary leader and as DA member on Twitter.
He has already resigned as DA leader on Wednesday.
Dr. Annelie Lotriet, the DA’s caucus leader, acts as parliamentary leader, while Jacques Julius, deputy chief whip, acts as the party’s chief whip.
The nomination process to find a successor to Maimane as the DA’s parliamentary leader began on Thursday.
Lotriet told parliament shortly after a DA caucus meeting Thursday that the caucus requested her to write to the party’s federal executive to request permission to elect a successor to Maimane from caucus ranks on Tuesday.
Lotriet was not available Friday for comment on who else made them available.
Asked if the DA caucus is still united after Maimane’s departure, Lotriet said on Thursday: “I don’t think any caucus is ever fully united.
“We have our smaller disputes. But in broader terms, we are united on what we want to achieve. And it is a democratic South Africa where everyone has an opportunity and where there is freedom, justice and the rule of law. That’s what we all stand for. ”
Meanwhile, Ryan Coetzee, strategist and former DA MP, tweeted on Friday that the narrative that the DA has lost all its leaders is wrong.
Coetzee, along with former Leader Tony Leon, was part of the review panel that produced the damning report on the state of the DA that led to Maimane’s fall last week.
Maimane resigned as DA leader on Wednesday after discussing the report at a meeting of the party’s federal council last weekend. Helen Zille was elected chairman of the federal council.
Coetzee also tweeted on Friday that in 2007 the DA created its “The Young Leaders” program to cultivate new leaders, even though some were opposed to the party’s top management at the time.
He then mentions that current prominent DA members such as Makashule Gana, Cilliers Brink, Ashor Sarupen, Gwen Ngwenya, Geordin Hill-Lewis, Solly Malatsi, Kevin Mileham, Solly Msimanga, Warwick Chapman, Mbali Ntuli and other products thereof.
“All of them have already proven themselves in some way, even if they don’t always agree. One can do worse than hand the party over to those people. So stand up guys, it’s your time to be stars, ”Coetzee writes.
