Latest news with #TonyLeon
Daily Maverick
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Tony Leon's new book delivers an insider's account of South African and global politics and personalities
Tony Leon's new book contains fascinating observations about previous foreign and South African leaders and their successes and failures. It also offers insider views on the negotiations to achieve the Government of National Unity. The book reads just like he would sound in a congenial conversation over dinner. We meet over coffee, just before Tony Leon goes to speak at the memorial service for his long-time friend and political colleague Douglas Gibson. At that service, Leon said of Gibson, in speaking of their party, post-1994, that: 'Reduced to just seven MPs and three senators, each of us had to juggle dozens of competing roles. His included chairman of the Federal Council, chief whip, spokesman on Justice and Transport and member of the rules committee. In navigating the revival of our party, Douglas was my essential partner and my closest collaborator, and in the snake pit of politics we forged a durable and deep friendship for which I am so deeply grateful.' His comments regarding his long-time friend's life and works highlight Leon's political trajectory as well. Even if some think Leon was too in-your-face for the politics of the new South Africa, (a political life that, to be fair, is pretty hard-knuckle) he deserves credit for helping set his party on its journey to being South Africa's official opposition, instead of being the marginal political force that it was, back in 1994. The party is now the second largest partner in the Government of National Unity, the second multiparty government since 1994 and in the first days of the country's racially integrated politics. We quickly get on to the business of speaking about his new book, Being There, and his thinking about the current and future challenges of South Africa's political and economic landscape. I remind him that we first met at a mutual friend's home over dinner in the years before the 1994 election. Back then, he was a junior parliamentarian and I was working at the US embassy, trying, like every diplomat assigned to this country, to gauge its rapidly changing political texture and what it would mean for the future. As a backbencher MP, Leon's reputation was as a new, bold — and even arrogant, for some — politician. Back then, it seemed he had crisp, definitive answers for every challenge. If he still has answers for many questions, he has also been tempered by a lifetime in politics. For those who may not remember, Leon was a member of the Progressive Party through its various iterations as it became, successively, the Progressive Federal Party, the Democratic Party and eventually the Democratic Alliance, or DA. Along the way, he may be best remembered as the face of a feisty party that once campaigned on the slogan, 'Fight Back!' For some, while that was read as a pushback against the new, all-race, democratic dispensation in South Africa, Leon would certainly have insisted, au contraire, it was a principled, succinct protest against the growing corruption, the lack of effective government administration and policing, and floundering efforts to build a strong economy and nurture job creation. But that is now old news. We have all moved on. Youngish elder Leaving Parliament, Leon served as South Africa's ambassador to Argentina — on behalf of an ANC government, nogal. More recently, he has moved away from government service and joined the corporate world. But earlier this year, the DA was poised to become a key element of the new Government of National Unity (GNU), as the ANC's faltering lock on national politics and the electorate had made one-party government impossible to maintain. His old party then called on Leon as a youngish elder to be a leading participant in the negotiations over the formation of that GNU. His description of those efforts comprises a significant portion of his new book. Leon believes the DA is becoming increasingly well-placed to position itself, in the future, as the core party of a new political landscape, as the governing party or leader of a coalition of like-minded political groups beyond the current political landscape. The first section of his book delivers insights about the lives and careers of several Middle Eastern leaders, including Yasser Arafat, Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres (and, by contrast, the actions of the current Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas). There is also a more expansive essay on the essential nature and requisites of leadership — or the lack of it, nowadays. As Leon writes towards the end of Being There: 'In many ways, we inhabit — in the true sense — a leaderless world. Mostly, our leaders are either pedestrian placeholders or titanic ego-driven populists who use high office as an engine for self-enrichment or as an instrument of revenge against enemies, real or perceived. The Peronists in Argentina, the Zumas in South Africa, the Trumps in America and the Netanyahus in Israel — all are political grifters who set one section of society against the other. They weaponise differences and grievances, ride roughshod over rules and respect for others, and hijack public institutions for personal ends.' Leon's thoughts about populism ring about right, especially his thoughts over what he terms 'cakeism' — the appeal of would-be populist leaders and their promises that can destroy an economy. (Cue those apocryphal remarks of the queen of France about bread versus cake.) It seems entirely reasonable that such views were strengthened as he observed the glowing embers of Peronism when he was South Africa's ambassador in Argentina. Collectively, thoughts like these can easily be read as a critique of the current leaders in the Middle East. The second part of the book plays off Jesse Unruh's crisp summing up of the inevitable mix of money and politics: 'Money is the mother's milk of politics.' Unruh was a major figure in California state politics for decades, and he is on target, although there are occasionally other nutritional elements in that mix as well. (My favourite novel of politics is Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the King's Men. There, Warren added the inevitability of sex as the third leg of the political triangle along with money and the temptations of power, although Leon left that third element out of his equation.) In this section, several chapters recount his fraught fundraising experiences for his party — especially since in the early days of the new dispensation, the Progressive Party/PFP/DP/DA was a minnow in a smallish pond that was also inhabited by a large shark. Another chapter includes a dissection of the public saga of Ronnie Kasrils, an approach that may have been encouraged by Kasrils' cheerleading for the Hamas militants in their 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel. (Leon's spouse is Israeli-born born and Kasrils' language clearly infuriated Leon.) As Leon tells it, through the years of the South African liberation struggle, in exile, Kasrils had quietly been receiving a retainer from his brother-in-law, a prominent businessman in South Africa. But after Kasrils' comments on the 7 October massacre, that tap closed. Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold, and so it has been served. Complex negotiations For many readers — those interested in the negotiations for the birthing of the GNU, and even more so, commentators and historians of South Africa's contemporary politics — Leon's detailed description of the complex negotiations between the ANC and the DA, together with some other parties leading to the formation of the GNU will be of genuine interest. Leon kept a diary throughout this entire engagement, and almost 100 pages of his book form a narrative built on those diary entries. In the future, it will be an important source for evaluations of those negotiations. Leon's recollections will be read together with those of all the others who participated in the negotiations, after they write their versions. The remaining pages of Being There include short essays on the successes and failures of FW de Klerk, Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Nelson Mandela. There is also a series of more personal reminiscences, labelled by the author as The Nostos. These include a deconstruction of the false charge that Leon's father had been responsible for sentencing the ANC operative Solomon Mahlangu to death years ago. In particular, Leon's experiences as an ambassador in Argentina during the desperate days in that country's last (so far) Peronista regime are particularly interesting, as Leon positions them as a cautionary tale of what happens when a country augers towards the ground economically and politically. Of special interest to this reader (because of his own experiences) were Leon's non-specialist but trenchant observations on Japan after visiting there. Japan has surmounted its World War 2 experience (and managed to put much of the resulting horrors aside), even as it continues to embrace many ancient traditions together with its contemporary political and economic policies designed for the benefit of a majority of its citizens. Beyond the book, our conversation also covered other topics, key among them being the current difficulties between the US and South Africa. I ask Leon who he thinks should be South Africa's ambassador to the US, or, perhaps, what kind of person should they be? Leon observes that the ambassadorial role has been diminished over the years (the recent presidents' meeting had no ambassadors present from either nation, as would usually have been the case in a meeting between two national presidents). Beyond the traditional diplomatic roles, more and more, Leon says, the job of an ambassador is to be their country's chief salesperson, instead of one of those old-style diplomats. Any new South African ambassador assigned to Washington will have a difficult policy to sell, especially given the two countries' Middle East positions. A key question now is that the Trumpian dog whistle to its Maga constituents is over DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and, by extension, over South Africa's Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment policies. Speculating in the immediate wake of the presidential meeting, he notes that the approach of a possible equity equivalent for Starlink operations in South Africa may lead to changing the discussion. (Of course, crime is something that is always in the air in any discussions about South Africa, and it came up in that presidents' meeting as well. It was instructive, per Leon, that rebuttals about crime in that meeting came from a white South African billionaire.) We turn to the often-repeated accusation that the DA has a problem with black leaders. Leon responds that it is unfair to call every black leader's departure from DA leadership roles a failure of black leadership in the party. People leave political bodies for many reasons. However, he adds that the party needs to make it easier and more enticing for expatriated South Africans to return to the country and make real contributions. What of the DA's future? Leon says he is most interested in matters of policy rather than party management, as he is no longer an officer-holder. He believes that by being in the GNU, the DA has improved its legitimacy and prospects with many people. Its participation in the GNU has made it more 'kosher,' so to speak, and it may well gain further traction. He thinks that if the DA can maintain this trend, it will grow even as the ANC continues to make further reversals in support. The key question, of course, is how he views South Africa's future. Leon argues that most countries, except for places like Afghanistan or Sudan, don't explode or disintegrate. He acknowledges that there still is a lot of ruin in South Africa, but citizen action is stepping forward wherever it can. Taken as a whole, Leon seems cautiously optimistic about the country's future prospects, regardless of its current problems and its challenges. DM
The Citizen
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Citizen
Man of influence still a player?
Being There reads like a backstage pass to the past 30 years or so of SA politics. Few politicians have had the kind of influence and staying power Tony Leon, 68, has. He's been there, done that and got the T-shirt more than once. He also notched up a few firsts; most notably helping bury the National Party and turning a small party into the official opposition. None of them small feats. While Leon has not held public office in years, when politicians need to call a friend, they call him. Leon back in politics Last year, he found himself back in the thick of things. The DA asked him to help with the negotiations that led to the formation of the government of national unity. It was a high-stakes moment in South Africa's political history – one that required experience, institutional memory and calmness under pressure. 'You're making big decisions with imperfect information and not enough time,' Leon said. 'There was propaganda coming from all sides and we weren't even sure a deal was possible. But the alternative to a bad deal would have been disastrous.' ALSO READ: ANC 'outsmarted' in GNU, says analyst To be back in the game was never the plan Although he never planned on returning to the fray, he understood the gravity of the situation, he said. 'This wasn't a choice between good and bad. It was between a mediocre deal and a catastrophic alternative. 'If things had gone the other way, the economy would have taken an irreparable hit.' Leon kept a detailed diary throughout the process, something he had not done before. 'Not just fragments or scraps. I wrote everything down this time,' he said. New Book It's all captured in Being There, his new book which reads like a backstage pass to the past 30 years or so of South African politics. Leon's role in shaping the DA and, by extension, the country's political environment, stretches back to a different era. When he was 18 years old, he was already actively involved as an organiser for the Progressive Party just before he studied law at Wits University. Leon's political career started pre-1994, when he was elected to represent Bellevue in Joburg as a councillor. The Progressives at that time became the Progressive Federal Party – PFP. It was, as he described it, a time when being persistent about service delivery and getting things done could yield results. 'I was attentive and I was probably a bit of a pain to the municipal officials. But if you wrote to them, they responded. Problems got sorted out,' he said. ALSO READ: SA politics is not for sissies First parliamentary seat He went on to win his first parliamentary seat in 1989, for Houghton by a margin of just 39 votes. 'Had I lost, I would probably have stayed in law. I might have been richer, but I would not have had the same depth of experience.' Eventually the PFP became the Democratic Party (DP) when the Independent Party and the National Democratic Movement joined hands under then leader Zach de Beer Before Leon assumed the leadership role at the DP, he was actively involved in shaping South Africa's democracy at the multiparty Convention for a Democratic South Africa negotiations before the 1994 elections. Leon led the Democratic Party As Nelson Mandela became president, Leon led the Democratic Party into a new era, most notably at first through the Fight Back campaign of 1999, a slogan that became shorthand for his brand of combative, unapologetic opposition politics. Under his watch, the DP rocketed from a marginal voice in parliament to the official opposition. Then, 14 months or so later. the DP consumed the remnants of the National Party and became the DA. 'It was hard, hard graft,' he said. 'We worked very hard and often for very mediocre or suboptimal rewards. But you do what you've got to do.' ALSO READ: Maimane slams Tony Leon for calling him 'an experiment that went wrong Leaving politics After leading the DA for seven years, he stepped down in 2007, leaving active politics at 50. 'I had done everything I could do. I wasn't going to hang around until I got pushed. Knowing when to leave is a very underrated political skill.' He said politicians often have large egos, but there are checks and balances. 'Every politician's a narcissist. Some more than others. I'm not immune, but if you're in it just for the press coverage or a job title, your career won't last.' For Leon, looking back, the formation of the DA was one of the most consequential moves of his career. 'We took a splintered opposition and turned it into something that could actually hold the government to account,' he said. 'It wasn't perfect but without it, we'd have a very different country, that would be all the poorer for it, today.' What happened after politics? After politics, he became South Africa's ambassador to Argentina, cofounded the communications firm Resolve, and started writing columns for news organisations and books. He also picked up a regular side gig lecturing on cruise ships. 'You don't make money from it, but you get to see incredible places. I've been from the Antarctic to New Zealand,' he said. He reads voraciously, walks his dogs daily and tries to stay active. 'My wife gave me a cushion once with a picture of our dachshund and the words, 'Be the person your dog thinks you are'. It's the most honest standard to live by.' Golf is off the table these days. 'I was hopeless,' he said. NOW READ: WATCH: 'The president appoints ambassadors,' says Ramaphosa
IOL News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Tony Leon's track record dispels DA's narrative of 'skilled diplomat'
Decades ago, Tony Leon penned articles praising the apartheid military – describing the South African Defense Force's brutal 1970s invasion of Angola as 'one of many splendored tasks of the army', says the writer Image: IOL Ali Ridha Khan THE DA frames former party leader Tony Leon as a 'skilled diplomat' fit to represent South Africa in Washington. But this glowing portrayal wilfully ignores Leon's political history and its entanglement with apartheid's legacy, neoliberal dogma, and racial hierarchies. Far from being a neutral statesman, Leon built his career as an opposition politician who courted white fears and capitalist interests. In the late 1990s, his DA (then Democratic Party) campaigned under the slogan 'Fight Back', a barely veiled dog-whistle widely heard as 'fight black' – an appeal to those anxious about black majority rule. Leon even struck alliances with remnants of the apartheid regime (merging with the National Party's successors) in a quest for power. Calling him meritorious glosses over how he leveraged racial anxieties and protected privilege. Leon's track record hardly embodies high-minded diplomacy. Decades ago, he penned articles praising the apartheid military – describing the South African Defense Force's brutal 1970s invasion of Angola as 'one of many splendored tasks of the army'. He even called an apartheid detention center 'strictly regulated and humane', despite it being a site of torture and abuse. These are uncomfortable truths beneath the veneer of a 'seasoned diplomat.' His tenure as ambassador to Argentina (a post granted in a gesture of political co-option by the ANC) is cited as proof of his diplomatic prowess. Yet even that appointment was less about extraordinary skill than about elite back-scratching – the ANC-led government extending an olive branch to a vocal opponent by giving him a cushy posting. It's a reminder that in post-apartheid South Africa, yesterday's adversaries often find common cause at the top. Calling Leon uniquely qualified ignores how his politics aligned neatly with what Washington elites prefer: a pro-West, pro-market figure who won't rock the boat. Indeed, Leon has openly criticised South Africa's own foreign policy for being too 'antagonistic' to Western allies – chiding Pretoria's stance against Israel and its ties with Iran. Is it any surprise the DA touts him as the perfect envoy to the United States? His 'skill' lies largely in catering to the sensibilities of the powerful, not in advancing any transformative agenda for the powerless. By proposing Leon, the DA claims to champion meritocracy and good governance – insinuating that unlike the ANC, they appoint based on competence, not cadre loyalty. But merit according to whom? The DA's meritocratic posturing often masks a commitment to maintaining a status quo of privilege. Leon's career epitomises this: his policies and rhetoric rarely challenged the structural inequalities born of colonialism and apartheid. Under his leadership, the party fiercely opposed remedial reforms like affirmative action – denouncing the 1998 Employment Equity Bill as 'pernicious…social engineering.' In practice, 'merit' was defined in a way that upheld white advantage in the job market. The DA's governance record, especially in the Western Cape, is often praised for efficiency, yet the province remains one of the most unequal, with townships and luxury estates separated by invisible walls of spatial and economic apartheid. South Africa's Gini coefficient hovers around 0.63 – one of the highest inequality rates in the world. What has the DA tangibly done to upend this injustice? Their policies hew to market fundamentalism, insisting that free enterprise alone will uplift the poor. In reality, this neoliberal gospel has meant social services cutbacks, reluctance toward wealth redistribution, and blaming the victims of poverty for their plight. Invoking 'good governance,' the DA loves to lambast ANC corruption and mismanagement – a valid critique – but good governance is not only about clean audits and investor confidence. It's also about uprooting systemic oppression. On that front, the DA has been largely silent or complicit. Leon and his party never fundamentally challenged the post-1994 economic order that left land, capital and power largely in the same hands as before. Instead, Leon infamously crowed that the ANC's adoption of neoliberal policies in the late 1990s meant 'we have won the policy argument' – illustrating the DA's convergence with the ruling party on entrenching a market-led, elite-friendly framework. The DA's notion of merit conveniently aligns with existing power: English-speaking, business-approved, Western-educated elites like Leon sail through as 'competent,' while grassroots voices are dismissed as 'populist.' This is a meritocracy of the elite, not a genuine egalitarian vision. The push to send Tony Leon to the US must be seen in the light of a common practice: using diplomatic appointments to whitewash reputations and reward loyal servants of the establishment. Throughout the world (and certainly in South Africa), ambassadorships in glittering capitals are the retirement gold-watch for political elites. For Leon, a posting to Washington would cap his career with a statesmanlike halo, conveniently distancing him from the more unsavory aspects of his legacy. It's a form of rebranding: from opposition firebrand who pandered to apartheid nostalgia into a grandfatherly diplomat shaking hands in DC cocktail parties. Such appointments often do little to advance the interests of the people back home; they're about networking among elites and reinforcing alliances within the imperial core. In Washington, an ambassador like Leon would not be expected to challenge US hegemony or speak uncomfortable truths about global inequality. Quite the opposite – his role would be to mollify Washington's power-brokers, assure them that South Africa remains friendly to Western capital and geopolitical interests. This might include soft-pedaling South Africa's support for Palestinian rights or pan-African unity in favor of toeing the US line – exactly as Leon himself has advocated. The beneficiaries of this diplomacy are elite interests on both sides: American policymakers get a congenial partner who won't question the neoliberal consensus, and South Africa's rulers get a direct line to Washington's halls of power. Ordinary South Africans, especially the black and poor majority, are nowhere in this equation. For them, the daily struggles – poverty, joblessness, landlessness – won't be alleviated by having Tony Leon chat up U.S. senators. But Leon's image will be burnished, and the DA can bask in the pride of having one of their own in the court of the empire. The whole spectacle is political theatre, a far cry from the revolutionary diplomacy that anti-imperialists (from Patrice Lumumba to Nelson Mandela in his early years) envisioned – diplomacy that would center justice, not just polite business as usual. Khan is a fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape.
IOL News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Why appointing Tony Leon would be a slap in the face of the poor
The DA's touting of Tony Leon as ambassador – and the possibility the ANC government might actually consider it – shows how interchangeable the elites have become, says the writer. Image: IOL TONY Leon's nomination as an ambassador to the US must be situated in the broader trajectory of South Africa's liberal democratic project. The 1994 transition, while ending formal apartheid, created a constitutional order that preserved existing economic power structures under the guise of non-racialism and individual rights. The liberal constitutionalism championed by the DA has proven adept at containing radical change. It offers robust protections for civil liberties (important gains, to be sure) but has also shielded property relations and corporate capital from the kind of mass redistribution needed to uproot apartheid's legacy. Both the DA and the ANC largely operate within this paradigm – fiercely debating policy details while sharing a fundamental commitment to the neoliberal status quo. Indeed, over the past three decades, we've seen a striking elite convergence: former liberation movement cadres and erstwhile liberal opponents mingling in the same cocktail circuits, trading cabinet posts and ambassadorial gigs. It was no accident that the ANC government sent Tony Leon to Argentina as an ambassador shortly after he stepped down as DA leader – a gesture that symbolised the incorporation of the old white opposition into the new multiracial elite. Leon's return as a potential U.S. ambassador continues that story: a convergence of interests where yesterday's foes unite to manage an unjust order rather than transform it. From a Black Consciousness and Pan-Africanist perspective, this liberal elite pact is precisely what our liberation heroes warned against. Steve Biko cautioned that 'integration' (when pursued on white terms) could become a trap that co-opts black aspirations into a system still defined by whiteness and inequality. Today, we see a superficially integrated ruling class – black and white politicians alike – that largely serves global capital and local white-owned industry, while the masses remain dispossessed. The DA loves to wrap itself in the language of the Constitution, 'rule of law,' and 'orderly governance.' Yet what has this meant for the Azanian working class and dispossessed? It has meant patience and sacrifices urged upon the poor, while the wealthy consolidate their gains under the protection of law. The Pan-Africanist lens reminds us that true decolonisation was not achieved in 1994; South Africa remains tied to neocolonial patterns – its economy dominated by Western interests and its foreign policy often pulled between loyalty to the African continent and pressure to appease Euro-American powers. A figure like Tony Leon tilts the balance decidedly toward the latter: the imperial core's preferences over Pan-African solidarity. Even the ANC, in its quest to be the 'broad church' of all South Africans, has too often prioritised elite reconciliation over revolutionary change. We recall how the ANC under Mandela and Mbeki reassured whites and investors – from retaining apartheid-era economists to including the old anthem 'Die Stem' in a composite national anthem. These concessions were aimed at stability, but they also signaled a deal: political office for the black majority, economic power stays largely with the (mostly white) elite. In such a context, the DA and ANC start to look like two wings of a pro-capital, centrist consensus, squabbling over patronage but aligned on fundamentals. The DA's touting of Tony Leon as ambassador – and the possibility the ANC government might actually consider it – shows how interchangeable the elites have become. It's a far cry from the vision of thinkers like Ali Shariati, the Iranian revolutionary who railed against the 'Westoxified' local elites in the Global South who became administrators of imperial interests. Shariati's call for a spiritual and cultural reawakening – a revolution of values to overthrow both foreign domination and domestic tyranny – resonates as we witness these tepid power games. Where is the moral compass in our politics? Certainly not in the self-congratulatory liberalism that anoints a man like Tony Leon as an ambassadorial savior. The DA's move to elevate Tony Leon is not a bold innovation but a tired repetition of politics-as-usual. It reflects a poverty of imagination among South Africa's establishment. When faced with crises – like frosty relations with the U.S. after our government took principled stances on Palestine or dared foster BRICS ties – their impulse is to retreat to the old comfortable figureheads who reassure the empire that nothing truly radical will transpire in Pretoria. Leon is being sold as the ultimate problem-solver, the wise elder who will restore luster to South Africa's image abroad. Yet to the oppressed majority, this is a slap in the face. It says: your liberation can wait; first we must placate Washington. It says that those who defended the status quo for decades – who resisted calls for economic justice – will not only escape accountability but be rewarded with plum posts. We reject this cynical narrative. True merit in a society like ours would mean elevating those who have fought for the people, not those who fought to keep the old order intact. A genuine commitment to good governance would prioritize dismantling structural racism and inequality, not merely installing a different manager in the same old mansion. And an authentic diplomacy worthy of a democratic South Africa would project the voices of the grassroots, the workers, the landless, and the youth on the world stage – not the polished platitudes of a career politician with an uncritical affinity for the West. South Africa's destiny should not be to play perpetual junior partner to Washington, no matter who the ambassador is. Our destiny, as envisioned by Pan-Africanists and revolutionaries, is to chart an independent course, speaking truth to power globally and pursuing justice at home. The campaign for Tony Leon's ambassadorship is a symbol of liberal complacency. It is a comfort with mere symbolism over substance – swapping out envoys while the neocolonial scaffolding remains firmly in place. As citizens invested in a real liberation project, we must challenge not only this appointment but the entire mindset that produced it. We must insist that South Africa's representatives, at home and abroad, be accountable to the cause of liberation – a cause that neither begins nor ends with polite diplomacy in the corridors of Washington.
Eyewitness News
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
Leon believes the tensions between the DA & ANC in the GNU will benefit both parties in some form
CAPE TOWN - Former Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, Tony Leon, believes however the tensions between the African National Congress (ANC) and the DA play out in the Government of National Unity (GNU), it will have benefited both parties in one way or another. Speaking to the Cape Town Press Club on Monday about his sixth book, titled Being There , Leon believes an "anti-DA" sentiment can have political mileage for both parties as they head to their respective elective conferences. Leon, who was one of the DA's GNU negotiators, said it was part of healthy political debate for both parties to have disagreements over the DA's presence within the GNU. While Leon doesn't believe the GNU has yet made any notable achievements in turning the country's misfortunes around, he said praise was due for keeping the partnership together, considering the battles it's already faced. "I think that in itself shows a degree of maturity on both sides, because they are both relatively big parties, who have differences of opinion, and to still have maintained the government is an achievement." He predicted two upcoming stress points for the two major parties, the next local government elections and the ANC's 2027 leadership contest. "I think if someone like Paul Mashatile is elected as the president of the ANC, which must have some prospect, I would be surprised if the GNU lasts to 2029." Leon said that even within the DA itself, where the party is not unanimous on whether the GNU has been a sage political move, there should be ongoing descensus and debate over whether it should stay, go, or renegotiate its terms.
