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Opinionista

My First Week in the Arena

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Mmusi Maimane is leader of Build One SA.

When I was elected Leader of the Democratic Alliance last Sunday, I knew there would be renewed scrutiny of my public as well as my private life. But nothing could have prepared me for the scale and intensity of it.

For the most part, it has been invigorating. I thoroughly enjoyed my interview on CNN with Christiane Amanpour, for example. And I thought the reaction to #AskMmusi on Twitter was incredible. I am still amazed that it trended across the globe.

We have got South Africa (and the world) talking about the Democratic Alliance. Many people are looking at our politics with renewed hope, and there is certainly some momentum behind the party I now lead. This can only be a good thing.

The problem comes in when people pick up on utterances you have made and distort them for their own ends. Indeed, there are some commentators and members of the ‘Twitterati’ who claim to know me better than I know myself.

At the root of the manufactured outrage is the misguided notion that you cannot simultaneously be a liberal and Christian or, heaven forbid, the Leader of the Democratic Alliance and a pastor. Of course, it is absolute nonsense to suggest that liberals must, by definition, be atheists.

I am proud to call myself a Christian and a liberal. And I am proud of the progressive role that I play in my church. Let me explain exactly what I mean by this. And then perhaps those who claim to know me better than myself will pipe down for a little while.

Anybody who has listened to my sermons over the years will tell you that I subscribe to the theology of grace as opposed to the theology of judgment. This is not a universal view in the Christian faith, and it is not a view shared by everybody in my church. But it is certainly my view.

No Christian should ever judge others on the grounds of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation. And so, when I said in a sermon that there are gays and Muslims in my circle of friends, I was being deliberately provocative to conservative elements in my congregation. I was challenging them to break free from the shackles of prejudice that may still bind them.

I have always been a fervent supporter of gay rights, including the right to marry. In fact, I don’t agree that DA MPs should have been given a free vote on same-sex marriage when the matter was debated in Parliament back in 2006. All DA MPs should support same-sex marriage because it is the only option for somebody who subscribes to our values of an open, opportunity society for all.

It is why I stood with my friends Christo and Ryan when they got married, and signed the wedding register as a witness.

Whether I am in church or in Parliament, I always try to practice transformative leadership. The essence of this, to my mind, is to shake people out of their comfort zones in a way that takes them along with you. This is the role that I like to think I have played in my church, and it is a role that I hope to play as Leader of the Democratic Alliance.

I hold a strong faith. It’s what gets me through difficult times and helps me see in the goodness of humanity — that tomorrow is always better and that indeed freedom will reign.

Our church also gives me the platform to confront poverty, inequality and the role of young people. I am grateful for the leaders in our church who give me support.

All politicians have their detractors, and I know that in public life you have to take the rough with the smooth. I am well aware of those who spend their lives cutting and pasting things you have said to create a narrative that fits their particular agenda.

They remind me of the wise words of Theodore Roosevelt, when he said:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Nothing will deter me from the goals I have set myself as Leader of the Democratic Alliance. As I said in my speech on Sunday, the DA is built on a rock-solid foundation of values that are enshrined in our nation’s Constitution. Our party will remain true to its values in the years ahead because, ultimately, it is our values that will guide us to victory. DM

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