Newly elected DA provincial leader in KwaZulu-Natal Francois Rodgers Picture: Supplied Newly elected DA provincial leader in KwaZulu-Natal Francois Rodgers Picture: Supplied
Durban - Newly elected DA provincial leader in KwaZulu-Natal Francois Rodgers says that amongst the biggest challenges the party’s new leadership faces, heading to the upcoming local government elections, is voter apathy due to lack of service delivery.
Rodgers was speaking to Independent Media on Saturday shortly after being announced as the new leader of DA in KZN following the party’s provincial congress.
The 59 year-old Rodgers pipped Nicole Graham and Emmanuel Mhlongo to the post at the congress held at the Durban International Convention Centre.
Rodgers becomes the party’s first leader since 2015 when Zwakele Mncwango was first elected before he was re-elected once more in 2018, and now faces the task of leading the DA to this year’s local government elections set to happen between August and November.
Christopher Pappas, an MPL in the KZN legislature, was elected as the DA’s deputy provincial leader.
Dean Macpherson, an MP in the National Assembly, was elected as provincial chairperson while Shehana Kajee, Elma Rabe and Sithembiso Ngema have been elected as the new DA KZN deputy chairpersons.
Speaking shortly after his election as provincial leader, Rodgers said that he was humbled that the DA in the province had shown confidence in him to become the provincial leader for the next three years.
Rodgers said the biggest challenge they now faced was voter apathy and that they needed to take it on and overcome it.
“People have become so disheartened by poor service delivery, particularly in local government when it comes to the ANC and IFP led municipalities.
“That’s a challenge, but we’ve got to get out on the ground and convince people that if they let the right councillors and the right party (govern) we can change local government around and deliver effective, affordable services,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers, who had received the endorsement of his predecessor Mncwango, said that he had felt relieved after winning the race to become the DA’s provincial leader saying that it was never easy to contest leadership positions.
“The foundation that I put together while I was provincial chairperson, I’ll certainly continue to work on that and mobilise our ground troops to take on the 2021 elections and to increase our number of councillors and our footprint across the province,” Rodgers said.
Although his term will run into 2024, the year of the much anticipated provincial and national elections, Rodgers said the 2021 local government elections were the key focus for him and his new leadership.
“2021 is going to be a challenge, we need to face that. We need to grow our support and the number of councillors in the province and grow our footprint.
“I think that will then be a foundation for us to work towards 2024. Our goal in 2024 has to be to claim back the official opposition status in the province,” Rodgers added.