The esteemed leader of our esteemed "official opposition" has finally realised that he's outlived his effectiveness (in my opinion at least four years after that was obvious to me), and that the DA (in the mind of many voters, if not in reality structure-wise) was falling into a cult of personality:

"There is a danger, over time, that no matter how healthy or vigorous the internal workings of an organisation ... the identity and branding of the party will be almost completely absorbed into the identity and personality of its leader," Leon said.

As much as I consider Tony and some of the DA (Douglas Gibson comes to mind) as media attention grabbers, this almost has me thinking Tony sees the forest from the trees.  Has Tony been the Beast Rabban, setting the stage for a Feyd-Rautha to come with a subtler and more acceptible approach?

Apparently, there's a leaked party document that matches many of my views of the DA (and that in itself probably invalidates it): 

This is the crux of a leaked party document that criticises the party for neglecting black issues and promoting white interests, a strategy that - under Leon's leadership - saw membership growing to two million and improving its performance in elections.

... the leaked document - penned in part by chief executive and strategist Ryan Coetzee - painted a bleak future if the DA continued on its current tactical path.

Is Ryan Coetzee then making a power play?  Which could be quite ironic, since apparently he was behind the "Fight back" campaign...

Also mentioned as a contender by DA insiders yesterday was party CEO and MP Ryan Coetzee. While Coetzee is young and has been an MP only since 2004, he has worked closely with Leon for many years.

He was at the heart of the infamous “fight back” election strategy and has been an official spokesman for the leader and DA election campaign strategist.

Joe Seremane seems the only hope for a black leader of the party, opposed by a bunch of white faces (to mimic the DA's leadership page with Joe surrounded by 16 white guys) -  other mentioned include Coetzee and Helen Zille (although parting her with Cape Town might not be the best move).  Joe may have an advantage here - those within the party who aren't keen on a black leader might split their votes over the others...

Helen Suzman thinks a black leader for the DA is a good idea, although I was surprised she explicitly said man:

"I will like to see a strong liberal black man in charge. Not a guy who play games with the government, that will be good for South Africa,” said Suzman.

Interesting times, then.  So far, someamongus has some coverage.

Theuns Botha (DA provincial leader): ``How can a white person be racist towards another white person? She should not expect the community to like her because she is a quota player. She is being used.''. So, it's not racially motivated when a bunch of white people terrorise a white person because they hang out with black people? Sure, Theuns - anything you say...

So, today was the local government elections here in South Africa, with a public holiday attached - well, if you're not a few man-hours of work before your next major release of software and you're averaging about 7 hours a day without electricity. So, anyone else notice that the electoral commission web site sucks even more than usual? Absolutely not usable using Firefox. Gah, and they haven't even replied to my seven or so emails since October 2003 on this issue on their standard web site...

I was rather surprised when I scanned an article title in someone else's paper about a proposed extension to a third term for president. Since the ANC policy and Mbeki himself are opposed to the idea, I'm not quite sure what I think of the South African National Civic Organisation's call, but it sure looks like a play. Karima Brown seems to think so too.

On the Western Cape Linux Users Group mailing lists, the subject of providing support to potential Linux users in prison was brought up. Someone expressed that they had little sympathy for criminals, and this was my attempt to explain why it's a good idea to care about the skills prisoners learn while in jail.

As I'm in such a weird mood at the moment, I hope you will forgive me a little tangent into the political world. Jane Galt's piece on same-sex marriage that supposedly doesn't support either side was mentioned on Commentary as a must-read. I agree with what Laurence seems to suggest: that the must-read portion is not about same-sex marriage.

And people wonder why I vote for the ANC? In Mixed political views on gay-marriage ruling, it states:

The Democratic Alliance would not take a stand as it was a moral issue, but spokesperson Tertius Delport was "surprised" by the ruling: "We expect different views and respect other views. But personally I think the idea of a male and a female forming the basis of a family is ingrained in the whole order of nature and even more so in the structures of our society. I for one was therefore surprised at the finding but this is something that we are not going to take up swords on."

Almost any follower of the US election is familiar with the "red" election map, seemingly showing a massive victory for Bush (well, even more massive than was the case). But any thought into the matter would indicate that the central and southern "red" states have large area but much lower population density. But that still doesn't help express it nicely.

Since I've left it so late, I'm afraid it's another US election-related post. Jacob Kaplan-Moss has put together some useful information about US Newspaper Endorsements. Covering ownership vs. endorsements, state vs. endorsements, and so forth. And "flip-floppers" on the endorsements since last election. Nice work - love tools like this. Via Simon Willison.

I wrote this as a comment on Wayne at commentary.co.za's endorsement of Kerry, and since it went on a bit, I figured I might as well pretend to know about politics and the US elections on my web log too.