DA facing serious problems: Analyst

Mmusi Maimane stepped down as the leader of the Democratic Alliance on Wednesday at a media briefing in Johannesburg. DA Federal chairperson, Athol Trollip, also resigned from his position in the party.

READ: Mmusi Maimane, Athol Trollip resign from DA leadership

On Monday, Herman Mashaba quit as Johannesburg mayor, and as a member of the DA, effective from the end of November. 

Political analyst, Protas Madlala says this week's triple resignation makes the public more aware of what has been going on behind closed doors.

"The party is really facing serious problems. I think the identity and the brand has taken a major blow, because it always portrayed itself as a party of the future for everyone in South Africa, and now I think it has been stripped naked and it has been seen for what it is," says Madlala. 

"No one is going to doubt what we suspected from a distance all along, that it was window dressing getting black people into this party. It was more to further the intention and the goals of the white minority in this country to perpetrate the inequalities of the past," he said.

LISTEN: 

Meanwhile, Helen Zille says an urgent meeting will be held on Thursday to map a way forward.  

The media spotlight had been on Maimane in recent weeks, after reports he had used a car sponsored by Steinhoff's controversial former CEO, Markus Jooste. 

Questions were also raised about whether he was paying rent for his multi-million rand Cape Town home. Announcing his departure, Maimane said the past few weeks have been extremely difficult for him and his family. 

"This extended to a campaign that was run on the front pages of Afrikaans weekly paper in an attempt to undermine my name and my integrity. This cowardly behaviour has put my wife and our kids in great danger, as I watched, often in disgust, of the pictures of our home being published in the media and the dangers that went with that," he said.