'I am a card-carrying member of the DA and am of the belief that South Africa does have liberal values in its DNA, and they need to be reinforced.'
Former DA leader Tony Leon during an interview on May 21, 2014 in Johannesburg, South Africa.Picture: Gallo Images / City Press / Leon Sadiki
Critics have suggested that, like his successor Helen Zille, his exit from mainstream politics may have alienated a small, but powerful sect of the DA’s more conservative supporters. He completed his term there in January 2013 and upon his return to South Africa, he was awarded a fellowship at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study.
“They approached me and said ‘we would really appreciate it if you would lend us a hand. We put our efforts in different parts of South Africa to propel us into the elections and [need] someone who has been passionately involved in the opposition project since the building of the DA and its predecessors,’” he explains.
Credited as a founding member of the DA, a marriage of conservative and liberal opposition parties in 2000, Leon was the longest-serving leader of South Africa’s official opposition, before serving the ANC government as an ambassador to Argentina between 2009, when he stepped down as DA leader, to 2012.
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