South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance party has elected its first black leader at its congress starting.
Mmusi Maimane, 34, now succeeds Helen Zille, who resigned unexpectedly last month.
Maimane faced party chairman Wilmot James for the job, and was elected at a party conference in Port Elizabeth.
”This congress is a turning point, not only for the DA but also for South Africa,” the party’s outgoing leader of eight years, Helen Zille, said in her farewell speech.
Speaking at the Citizen, Zille said she will be there to support and help the party. “I will be there to work for the course that I have worked so much for the whole of my life,” Zille said. “But if you are in the leadership position the buck stops with you.” Zille said she was “relieved” that she was longer DA leader.
The party increased its share of the vote in the 2014 elections, but has struggled to present itself as an alternative to the ANC, who have governed South Africa since the end of apartheid.
Maimane, born in 1980 joined the political party since 2009.
