SOMEWHERE in all the chatter and two cents’ worth this week on the Democratic Alliance’s leadership race was an urgent call for contest favourite Mmusi Maimane to free himself from his “oppressors”.

It came from Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, who perhaps should have been concerning herself with other matters. 

Sadly, she was not suggesting that the DA parliamentary leader leave the Liberty Church where he serves as a pastor and elder.

For this is the great concern about Maimane: his involvement in a deeply conservative organisation that discriminates against homosexuals, not to mention his shabby flip-flops with regards to the death penalty and gay marriages, really does suggest that his liberal credentials have an air of the Hlaudi Motsoeneng matric certificate about them and that he is not fit to lead the party.

Here at the Mahogany Ridge we were initially gearing ourselves to loftily dismiss Monday’s televised debate between Maimane and his rival in the leadership battle, outgoing federal chair Wilmot James, as just another example of the American-styled hokum the pay channel people in Randburg regularly fling our way.

But no. The scales fell, as they say. This was a shocker. Maimane’s patently confused grasp, as James pointed out, of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights was glaringly exposed. 

Not that, according to commentators, these shortcomings will affect tomorrow’s outcome. 

Maimane will lead the party. As Eusebius McKaiser put it, “The key reasons are obvious: he is much more charismatic than James, much better known than James and, despite the limted time for campaigning, Maimane appears to have had more resources at his disposal.”

Charismatic? The notion is terrifying. Alarm bells should be ringing everywhere. In the shallow world of South African politics, charisma is a vital accessory for grubbing one’s way to the top of the heap and as such is a reliable bellwether for psychopathy.

Without it, the modern politician is lost. Charisma trumps all reason. James possibly has all you’d ever want in an elected representative. Apart from his relative anonymity – why this should be seen as a drawback speaks volumes about our mania for celebrity – he is ultra-smart, and way more of an intellectual and strategist than the naive and clumsy Maimane. 

James obviously has more experience and he’s certainly not confused about his convictions as a liberal democrat. It seems cruelly wrong that all this should count for nothing simply because he is not a metrosexual narcissist with a winning smile.

There is, this being South Africa, also the question of race. Right now, the DA believes it needs an African at the helm to broaden black support. What it really needs, though, first and foremost is a proper leader. 

Another, perhaps more cynical reason for Maimane’s anointment as the chosen one may be because he is religious. Is the DA aping the ANC model?

President Jacob Zuma – also charismatic – is a religious man. He often says so.

His particular brand of Christianity may seem odd to rational people – even other Christians – but there’s no denying that God’s “special” relationship with the ruling party has deepened under Zuma’s leadership. 

And why not? We are a religious country; some 75% of South Africans, according to research carried out in 2013, regard belief in God as being necessary to be moral. The figure for secular France, by comparison, is just 15%.

Zuma’s God-bothering, if I may, seems to have started in earnest in 2003. That’s when, after a trip to the Middle East, he declared that he had stood on the banks of the River Jordan, “where Jesus was baptised”, and . . . well, something happened. “So,” he added, “if I look at anyone, he or she will be blessed.”

This, mind you, in an address to the National Council of Provinces. (Where were the people with the white coats?)

Not long after that, we were informed that those who vote for the ruling party would be “blessed” and that “the ANC will rule South Africa until Jesus comes back”.

Maimane has the same uncomfortable enthusiasm when he’s in pastor mode. A video of one of his recent sermons, on politics and religion, has been posted on Vimeo. It’s instructive. “Do I want Christians to be in charge of our nation?” Maimane asked his congregation. “Yes, I do.”

The problem is we’ve already got them. And it’s really not working out that well. Could we try someone who can do the job — and not just leave it up to Jesus?

This article first appeared in the Weekend Argus.