The Mamphela Ramphele and Helen Zille marriage that never got to the church

Former DA Federal Council chairperson James Selfe wrote a number of chapters and overviews of events and people, but the weariness caused by his illness meant that his written story was incomplete when he died in May 2024. His widow Sheila wanted James’s contribution to South Africa’s body politic to be recognised. This extract, the third of four, is drawn from the drafts James left behind. Former DA MPs Wilmot James and Marian Shinn curated the extracts, and they were released with Sheila Selfe and the Selfe family’s support.

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The ill-fated courtship, before the 2014 general election, of high-profile political activist and medical doctor Mamphela Ramphele was a frustrating episode in DA leader Helen Zille’s search for a leader who would rid the DA of its appellation of being “white”.

Their working relationship began in 1993 when Helen joined the staff of the University of Cape Town (UCT) as the director of development and public affairs. Mamphela was vice-chancellor. Superficially, this relationship was symbiotic and successful: Helen would develop the message and the communications strategy, while Mamphela would deliver it. Other accounts of their relationship differed. 

They parted ways when Helen left UCT in 1999 to take up her seat for the erstwhile Democratic Party in the Western Cape legislature. As Helen’s leadership role in the Democratic Alliance grew she constantly sought a way to increase black support nationwide. She said the public face of the party needed to be diverse – particularly at senior leadership level – for black people to feel comfortable in voting for the DA.

For that reason, when, in 2010, Mamphela told her that she wanted to join the DA, Helen was ecstatic. This was the kind of black leader she sought. Mamphela had Struggle credentials – having paid a terrible price in the 1970s, and was someone who had held senior posts in the medical environment, at UCT and at the World Bank. 

Mamphela didn’t take the conversation further until 2012 when, rather than joining the DA, she wanted to meet. We should have been warned: she seemed to have a limited attention span. The meeting finally took place in August 2012. She was accompanied by political economist Moeletsi Mbeki and political analysts Prince Mashele and Brutus Malada.

Mamphela is the most extraordinary person. She is very intelligent but rather aloof. She is proud, even vain, and hyper-sensitive. She surrounds herself with creature comforts that come out of the top drawer. We only ever met at the Western Cape premier’s residence, Leeuwenhof, Helen’s official residence, or at a pricey guesthouse, which we naturally paid for.

I had a great deal to do with Prince Mashele since matters were often delegated to a technical team – him and me. At one meeting we discussed the formation of a new political organisation (to be called the Democrats). I had drawn up a paper pointing out some of the difficulties for the DA in doing what Mamphela had insisted on, such as the disestablishment of the DA, and acknowledging the perceptions that an alternative party would not succeed if it was perceived to be the DA in a different name.

This proved a huge stumbling block. Mamphela wanted to be the leader of a new organisation which all the members of the DA would join, and which she was certain from her consultations “with a group which represented the silent politically homeless”, and a very large number of other people would also join. 

Helen outlined our difficulties, frequently, and with great clarity: the DA had an existing brand, an excellent organisation, and systems and procedures. The DA could not simply cease to exist: for one thing, it would mean that every public representative would lose his or her seat.

Discussions took place between August and the end of 2012, but we were unable to resolve this existential issue. As a result, we decided to go it alone: the DA and whatever party Mamphela established (Agang in February 2013) would contest the 2014 election separately. We would meet after the election to discuss how to establish a new organisation or at least cooperate. 

We left it there and concentrated on preparing for the elections. But, towards the end of 2013, Mamphela established contact, first with federal chairperson Wilmot James and then subsequently with DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko and Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, through an intermediary, and suggested resuscitating our conversations.

We certainly did not want to be the people who had stood in the way of a possible realignment of our politics. At the same time, I (and I suspect Helen) was not prepared to go through another round of fruitless discussions. We didn’t have the time. There was an election upon us and our processes were almost complete.

Helen made this very clear to Mamphela on several occasions, but Mamphele brushed these objections aside as being “logistical”. However, Helen devised a rather clever compromise: Mamphela would be our presidential candidate (a position we had never had before), which would put her at first place on our national list of parliamentary candidates. 

The federal executive had the power to insert a few candidates if it was voted to do so by a two-thirds majority, so that was theoretically possible. Helen emphasised that this offer was dependent on Agang being disestablished, Mamphela joining the DA, and its members being absorbed by the DA. Helen sold this to a reluctant federal executive, at which Athol Trollip and Mmusi Maimane ostentatiously voted against.

True to form, after Helen had expended lots of political capital achieving this, Mamphela vacillated. She approved of this arrangement. Then she consulted with others, and changed her mind. Yes, Agang would disappear, then it wouldn’t. Mamphela was joining the DA, then she wasn’t. Media statements issued by Mamphela simply added to the confusion.

Helen insisted that Mamphela meet us on the afternoon of 30 January 2014 to clear up this confusion completely. Predictably, Mamphela arrived late and was absolutely unperturbed by the chaos she had caused. Helen told Mamphela (and she didn’t mince her words) that this sort of muddle was deleterious to the project to which we were both (seemingly) committed. Predictably, Mamphela played the race card, and tried to divide our team on race lines. Our association dissolved with much acrimony. 

Helen had invested a great deal in the arrangement with Mamphela. Although she gamely told us that we had dodged a bullet, it placed a huge question mark against the idea that any black leader could be parachuted into the party. A black leader would have to rise through the DA’s ranks. 

We seemingly never learnt that lesson. DM

Responses

Daily Maverick sent Dr Mamphela Ramphele and Helen Zille questions about claims in Selfe’s memoirs. Both responded, however Ramphele chose to not respond to each claim, but sent a statement instead. We publish Ramphele’s response below, and Zille’s further down.

MR: This is such fabricated nonsense that I cannot begin to respond except to say Helen Zille, with whom I worked at UCT when I was VC and she was Communications Executive Director, had approached me several times to join the DA before Agang was formed, and I had refused. 

Agang was formed in 2012 and was doing well, but time was short for it to get to where we wanted to. I was also then approached again by Helen Zille and Patricia de Lille to join the two. We had a number of conversations about how to structure this, but none of the purported meetings referred to are known to me. 

We then agreed that we would work together with three of us joining hands, as Patricia de Lille had done, to create a bigger platform than three separate small parties. This was announced publicly. 

Then came the endless demands for meetings at Helen Zille’s behest. I let her colleagues know that that style of leadership is inappropriate. My own colleagues at Agang were also unhappy with the DA approach. One of the funders tried to mediate the rift, but Helen Zille’s body language was off-putting, and we called the collaboration off. 

Anyone who has seen the Helen Zille style subsequently with Lindiwe Mazibuko, Patricia de Lille will understand that it is not possible to work with her unless you are a Yes Madam person! 

That is my response

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DM: Selfe claimed that what he called the “ill-fated courtship”, before the 2014 election of Mamphela Ramphele, was “a frustrating episode in [your] search for a leader who would rid the DA of its appellation of being ‘white’”. 

HZ: Yes, indeed. She kept changing her mind, and it was impossible to take her at her word, because it kept changing. She seemed not to appreciate that the DA had structures and systems through which decisions are taken, and they could not chop and change at her whim.

DM: Selfe claimed that in 2010, when Ramphele told you that she wanted to join the DA, you were “ecstatic”. He claimed: “This was the kind of black leader she sought. Mamphela had Struggle credentials – having paid a terrible price in the 1970s, and was someone who had held senior posts in the medical environment, at UCT and at the World Bank.”

HZ: I presume this is James’s way of putting it, although it sounds terribly patronising.

DM: Selfe wrote that the conversation on Ramphele potentially joining the DA only began again in 2012. But “rather than joining the DA, she wanted to meet”, he wrote. Selfe claimed he had drawn up a paper pointing out some of the difficulties for the DA in doing what Mamphela had insisted on, such as the disestablishment of the DA. He claimed: “This proved a huge stumbling block. Mamphela wanted to be the leader of a new organisation which all the members of the DA would join… Helen outlined our difficulties frequently and with great clarity: the DA had an existing brand, an excellent organisation, and systems and procedures. The DA could not simply cease to exist: for one thing, it would mean that every public representative would lose his or her seat.” 

HZ: There was no chance of disestablishing the DA just because Mamphela wanted us to. She had absolutely no idea what it takes to build up a political party.

DM: Selfe wrote that during the discussions which took place with Ramphele between August and December 2012, you were unable to resolve this issue, and as a result, the DA and Agang would contest the 2014 election separately. But Selfe said that towards the end of 2013, Ramphele made contact with the DA and suggested resuscitating these conversations. Selfe claimed that while you “did not want to be the people who had stood in the way of a possible realignment of our politics”, at the same time, he suspected you were not prepared to go through “another round of fruitless discussions”.

HZ: All sorts of people kept stepping in to advise Mamphela. Every time one of them did, she changed her position. I reached a point where I said “enough” and drew the line. 

DM: Selfe continued that you made this “very clear” to Ramphele on several occasions, but she brushed these objections aside as being “logistical”. He claimed: “However, Helen devised a rather clever compromise: Mamphela would be our presidential candidate (a position we had never had before), which would put her at first place on our national list of parliamentary candidates.”

HZ: Yes, that is true.

DM: Finally, Selfe claimed that you insisted Ramphele meet the DA on 30 January 2014 after much back-and-forth. He claimed: “Helen told Mamphela (and she didn’t mince her words) that this sort of muddle was deleterious to the project to which we were both (seemingly) committed. Predictably, Mamphela played the race card and tried to divide our team on racial lines. Our association dissolved with much acrimony. Helen had invested a great deal in the arrangement with Mamphela. Although she gamely told us that we had dodged a bullet, it placed a huge question mark against the idea that any black leader could be parachuted into the Party. A black leader would have to rise through the DA’s ranks.”

HZ: That was the conclusion the party reached. DM