DA's parliamentary caucus to vote for a leader

The Democratic Alliance (DA)’s parliamentary caucus will vote for a leader this week, with three long-serving parliamentarians in the running for the job.

They are the party’s current chief whip, George Michalakis, the party’s Eastern Cape leader, Andrew Whitfield, and its spokesperson on electricity and energy, Kevin Mileham.

It follows last month’s election of a new national leader for the party, Geordin Hill-Lewis, who is not a member of Parliament (MP).

Not since Helen Zille was the DA leader has the party had to choose someone else to lead the parliamentary caucus.

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Caucus chairperson Desiree van der Walt has explained that the vote will be carried out electronically, and that all three candidates’ names will appear on the ballot when the 99 members from both houses meet at their weekly caucus meeting on Thursday.

“Members who are voting must rank those three candidates in their order of choice. All internal elections where we elect leaders at this level, like in our caucuses. It’s all very professional and secure,” she said.

Of the three candidates, Michalakis has been serving as the party’s chief whip since the start of the seventh administration and if successful, will get to choose a new whip for the party.

However, if his leadership ambitions are unsuccessful, he will automatically lose the whip position unless either Whitfield or Mileham choose to stick with him.

Whitfield returned to the party’s backbenchers last year after being fired by President Cyril Ramaphosa as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry over an unsanctioned overseas trip.

Mileham, who also hails from the Eastern Cape, has been an MP since 2013, serving in portfolios that have included Cooperative Governance, Electricity and Energy.