Vote 2024 | Your M&G Election Newsletter | The DA unpacked

[View in browser]( 30YearsofDemocracy [Mail & Guardian]( Elections 2024 | Thu 28 Mar This limited series newsletter offers deep dives and timely updates from the Mail & Guardian’s esteemed politics and elections team. Your essential guide through South Africa’s pivotal elections, enriched by our historic journey from apartheid to democracy. Allow us to connect the past, present, and future of our nation’s democratic evolution. This week we sat down with Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen. We focus on that party, where they are at, what they want and a dash of where they have come from. [Steenhuisen | A DA-ANC coalition not off the table]( The Democratic Alliance has not completely shut the door on a coalition with the ANC, if its Multi-Party Charter alliance fails in its objective of unseating the governing party in the 29 May general elections, DA leader John Steenhuisen said. [// READ MORE]( [Ramaphosa ‘blown’ his chances of saving SA, says Zille]( Former DA leader Helen Zille told the M&G that her views on working with Ramaphosa’s ANC had changed. In her opinion, working with the governing party now would destroy the DA. [// READ MORE]( [John Steenhuisen | It’s elitist to exclude people from public office because they don’t have a degree]( Speaking to the M&G this week, Steenhuisen said the Constitution is very clear about who can serve as president and what qualifications are required. [// READ MORE]( --------------------------------------------------------------- From before apartheid | Where have the DA come from? [Graphic Da Short Website 1000px] --------------------------------------------------------------- HE SAID IT Speaking to the Mail & Guardian this week, DA leader John Steenhuisen said the Constitution is very clear about who can serve as president and what qualifications are required. “If we want to exclude 87% of the population because they don’t have a degree from getting public offers, I think that’s very elitist and I think it’s very exclusionary,” he said. “Nothing I learnt in politics had any bearing whatsoever on what politics is really about.” “There’s nothing I would have learned in university that I haven’t learnt over the last 23 years of being an activist, being a councillor, being a member of a provincial legislature and being a member of parliament, a chief whip and a leader of a political party that could stand me in better stead to be able to lead here.” [Read the full story here]( [John Steenhuisen 6506 Dv]DA Leader John Steenhuisen. Photographed in Johannesburg, 15 March 2024. (Delwyn Verasamy / M&G) Listen to the full interview. If you don’t see the embed, [click here]( --------------------------------------------------------------- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT EFF leader, Julius Malema, sat down with the Mail & Guardian’s Lizeka Tandwa for a one-on-one interview. Malema has to decide whether the party’s Deputy President, Floyd Shivambu, is the right person to lead the election battle in the hotly contested province of KwaZulu-Natal. Also, he said that the door was still open to collaboration with the DA and MK parties after the elections, but not with ANC’s Ramaphosa. If you can’t see the embed, [click here]( --------------------------------------------------------------- ADVERTISEMENT Our newsletters [[M&G Mornings Newsletter]M&G Mornings Daily newsletter featuring independent journalism and in-depth reporting.]( [[The Green Guardian Newsletter]Green Guardian Award-winning climate and environment coverage delivered every Wednesday.]( [[Webinars Newsletter]Webinars Award-winning climate and environment coverage delivered every Wednesday.]( Subscribe & support independent journalism Our commitment at the Mail & Guardian is to ensure every reader enjoys the finest experience. Join the M&G community and support us in delivering in-depth news to you consistently. Subscribers get access to all premium articles & features, amongst other benifits. [Subscribe Now]( Africa's Better Future [Share]( [Share]( Tweet Tweet [Forward]( [Forward]( SOCIAL PROFILES [Facebook]( / [Instagram]( / [X]( / [TikTok]( / [LinkedIn]( / [YouTube]( / [WhatsApp Channel]( [>> Forward to a friend >>]( Copyright © 2024 The Mail & Guardian, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from The Mail & Guardian Our mailing address is: The Mail & Guardian The Metal Box BraamfonteinJohannesburg, GP 2001 South Africa [Add us to your address book]( [Unsubscribe from this newsletter by updating preferences]( [Unsubscribe from all M&G Newsletters](