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Speaker 1: The DA is expected to announce the name of its

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Speaker 1: new leader after lunchtime today. I think we all probably

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Speaker 1: know who it's likely to be. The two day Federal

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Speaker 1: Congress kicked off at the Gallaghat Convention Center in mid

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Speaker 1: Rand yesterday, Cape Town Mayor Jordan Hill Lewis and Sidi

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Speaker 1: Caucus leader. I know that's Caucus. I'm a well read individual.

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Speaker 1: I know that word says caucus. And yet my brain

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Speaker 1: this is the perimenopause. Dyllan.

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Speaker 2: My brain went say calcus, ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: I know that.

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Speaker 2: I know that says caucus.

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Speaker 1: Seddi Ben Caucus leader, said an ass in the running

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Speaker 1: for the position outgoing leader John stnas And is stepping down,

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Speaker 1: of course, along with Federal Council Chairperson Helen Helen the

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Speaker 1: swimmer zillan a zilla, as I like to call in

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Speaker 1: a marking, of course, a very significant leadership change for

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Speaker 1: the party. Helen's villa, of course, the part party's mayor

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Speaker 1: or candidate for Joe Berg. Joining us this morning on

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Speaker 1: the line from mid Round is our aw and reporter

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Speaker 1: Alpha Ramushwana. Very good morning to Alpha. Good to have

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Speaker 1: you with us.

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Speaker 3: Good morning. It's always a pleasure.

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Speaker 2: Set the scene for us if you will. What's the mood.

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Speaker 1: How did the conference kick off yesterday and what's the

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Speaker 1: mood this morning.

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Speaker 3: Well, yesterday, the Democratic Alliance focused more on policy and

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Speaker 3: constitutional amendments, so the entire day that we're reviewing the

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Speaker 3: party's constitution and making changes to the party's constitution where

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Speaker 3: needs be. For instance, there was a proposal to amend

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Speaker 3: the constitution and establish an entirely new position of a

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Speaker 3: deputy Federal leader. There isn't such a position in the

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Speaker 3: Democratic Alliance, and one of the proposals was to establish

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Speaker 3: that position. However, the majority of people at the conference

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Speaker 3: ruled against that proposal. They felt that they did not

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Speaker 3: need a deputy federal leader because they already have a

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Speaker 3: federal chairperson and a Federal Council chairperson, and so that

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Speaker 3: position was effectively rejected. And so that's what they dealt

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Speaker 3: with yesterday, making constitutional amendments. They also had policy discussions

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Speaker 3: policy resolutions, talking about policies that guide the constitution and

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Speaker 3: policies that make the Democratic Alliance what it is. One

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Speaker 3: of the policies was that they want the public schools

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Speaker 3: to offer sanitary towels to young girls, and so that

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Speaker 3: was also one of the policies that was voted for

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Speaker 3: at the conference the Congress yesterday, and so yesterday really

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Speaker 3: was more of making changes to the party's constitution and

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Speaker 3: refining the policies that govern the Democratic Alliance. This morning,

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Speaker 3: people are a little bit more excited. They are actually

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Speaker 3: now starting to cast their ballots for the party's new leaders.

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Speaker 3: The voting in the Democratic Alliance is done electronically, so

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Speaker 3: they move from the main plenary where the Congress has

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Speaker 3: been happening. They are redirected towards a separate venue within

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Speaker 3: Gallagher Conventions in ten Midrand where there are small cubicles

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Speaker 3: with laptops, and on those laptops that's where they're going

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Speaker 3: to be casting their votes digitally. And that system, the

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Speaker 3: electronic voting system which they use is really quick with

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Speaker 3: counting the votes, telling up everything and also in case

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Speaker 3: there are disputes, these system is also able to give

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Speaker 3: them verifiable results and so we do expect after lunchtime

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Speaker 3: today the results to be announced, which will tell us

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Speaker 3: who the new leaders of the Democratic Alliance are. So

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Speaker 3: people are a lot more excited this morning.

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Speaker 2: Now listen up until we're quite last month.

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Speaker 1: Cape Jordan Hill Lewis was the only candidate in the

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Speaker 1: running for the position of federal leader, but now a

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Speaker 1: relatively unknown, very unknown I would say contender stepped up

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Speaker 1: to the challenge, or stepped up to challenge that I say,

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Speaker 1: Jordan hill Lewis for that position. What do we know

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Speaker 1: about Dionasse. He's a caucus leader in Sidibeng. He's throwing

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Speaker 1: his hat into the ring. Tell us a little bit

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Speaker 1: about him.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, is the DACE caucus leader in the city Wing

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Speaker 3: municipality here in how Ding. He is a late contender. Really,

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Speaker 3: people thought it would be Jordan hill Lewis, the Cape

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Speaker 3: Town mayor who would be elected to position and opposed.

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Speaker 3: And so Jordan hill Lewis does enjoy the support of

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Speaker 3: the you know, senior political leaders within the DAH and

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Speaker 3: not so much. And I did have a chat in

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Speaker 3: an interview with him yesterday and over the past few weeks,

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Speaker 3: and he's been quite confident really saying that he is

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Speaker 3: merely using the Democratic Alliance's democratic system. He says that

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Speaker 3: it's not fair for someone to be elected unopposed, and

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Speaker 3: he saw it fit for him to raise his hand.

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Speaker 3: I mean, to be fair, he does qualify to run

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Speaker 3: for the position of d a federal leader, but he's

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Speaker 3: relatively unknown in the DA as well, not only you know,

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Speaker 3: in the public. In the DA as well, some people

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Speaker 3: were surprised when they saw him raise his hand and

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Speaker 3: so he will be running against Jordan hill Lewis. While

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Speaker 3: we know that the senior leaders are supporting Jordan hill Lewis,

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Speaker 3: he also remains confident you know that he stands a chance.

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Speaker 3: So it's going to be an interesting day to day

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Speaker 3: when when the results come out and listen, it's.

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Speaker 1: Certainly an opportunity for him to raise his profile within

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Speaker 1: the party. I think we are all pretty confident as

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Speaker 1: to what the outcome is going to be later today.

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Speaker 2: But that's said, do you.

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Speaker 1: Think he's somebody that we should be keeping an eye

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Speaker 1: on for just generally in terms of the future of

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Speaker 1: the party.

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Speaker 3: Certainly, I think more than anything, his decision to contest

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Speaker 3: are widely supported. Jordan hill Lewis shows courage and someone

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Speaker 3: who's brave. There has been a lot of people within

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Speaker 3: the Democratic Alliance and externality as well who have really

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Speaker 3: criticized Soose for contesting Jordan hill Lewis, simply because people

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Speaker 3: do know that Hi Louis enjoys support of most of

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Speaker 3: the provinces, all of the provinces in fact at the conference.

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Speaker 3: And so I think while we do know that it's

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Speaker 3: likely to go to Jordan Hill, Lewis Is has shown

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Speaker 3: a lot of courage despite the criticism that he's received,

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Speaker 3: has shown that he does believe that there needs to

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Speaker 3: be democratic processes within the Democratic Alliance and certainly this

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Speaker 3: might be a step leader for him. You know, we

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Speaker 3: might also just keep an eye on him, and we

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Speaker 3: might also see him in the future running for a

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Speaker 3: position in how Thing, the DA Howding leadership. As we know,

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Speaker 3: so Limsi Maga, the DA how Thing leader, is running

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Speaker 3: for a position at Congress, so there might be space

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Speaker 3: in the province after all for how.

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Speaker 1: How significant then is this leadership change for the DA

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Speaker 1: of course as we're going into local government elections.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's a very very important federal Congress, this

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Speaker 3: one specifically because we are now in a time where

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Speaker 3: South Africa has moving our way from one party dominance,

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Speaker 3: so we no longer have one political party that rules

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Speaker 3: everywhere and everything, but we have a coalition system across

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Speaker 3: the board. I mean, and how they a majority of

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Speaker 3: municipalities coalitions. The province itself is led by a coalition.

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Speaker 3: National government is also now led by a coalition, and

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Speaker 3: so the Democratic Alliance is focus this time around is

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Speaker 3: to overtake the A and C and becoming the largest

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Speaker 3: party in South Africa. In fact, if you'd remember in February,

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Speaker 3: when John sty and Hazen announced that he won't be

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Speaker 3: running for re election as federal leader, he mentioned that

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Speaker 3: his biggest achievement was getting the DA international government and

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Speaker 3: the next leader would have the daunting task of overtaking

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Speaker 3: the ANC as the first as the biggest party in

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Speaker 3: South Africa, and so the new party's leadership would have

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Speaker 3: to have that in mind. That the party's goal and

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Speaker 3: the party's objective is to become the number one in

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Speaker 3: South Africa at the upcoming local government elections and twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty nine elections as well.

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Speaker 1: About what time are we expected to get the results today?

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Speaker 3: So voting started at this hour. It's happening digitally electronically.

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Speaker 3: We do expect the results to be announced between twelve

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Speaker 3: thirty and half past one in the afternoon, so by

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Speaker 3: the time you know, we go home today, we should

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Speaker 3: know who the next leaders of the Democratic Alliance.

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Speaker 1: Are exciting stuff and appreciate your time. This morning, EWN

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Speaker 1: reporter Alpha Ramushwana joining us from mid Rand this morning.

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Speaker 2: I love us.

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Speaker 1: One of my favorite sign offs is Alpha Alfa Ramushwan.

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Speaker 2: Love it, absolutely love him. What an absolute superstuff