Mbali Ntuli, whose resignation as a member and public representative of the Democratic Alliance featured prominently in the news last week, has said in a letter to her erstwhile colleagues that they need to protect their mental health and resist unfair treatment in the party.
The letter was seen and reported on by City Press.
Appealing to those who remain in the DA to support their colleagues who may be ‘having a hard time’, she wrote: ‘Most of us have a calling to be in politics and serve our country, but it can also be incredibly tough, with sometimes no recognition of the hard work we do and the personal toll it takes on us. Don’t be too hard on yourselves or others. Take care of your mental peace and protect it at all costs, if you must’.
The precise reasons for Ntuli’s departure have not been made public, but speaking to City Press, she said that the DA needed to do some work to understand why people were leaving it. This would then enable it to take remedial action. At stake, she said, was not only retaining people, but making the party welcoming to others.
She said that she had chosen to leave while she was young enough to undertake her own initiatives, and that it made no sense to stay and hope for influence in future.
‘How long should people stay and fight? Isn’t this one of the problems of political parties: that people in them don’t know when to leave? I’m young, but I look around and see politicians who’ve stayed around for whatever reasons. If you atrophy, you don’t challenge yourself; you just stick around so that you can challenge for power again’, she said.
[Photo: Papi Morake, Gallo Images]