--- title: Meet the first black leader of South Africa's main opposition party | TIME description: Mmusi Maimane is making history as the first black leader of the South Africa's Democratic Alliance. canonical: https://time.com/video/tQpWg9Ru/ og:title: Meet the first black leader of South Africa's main opposition party og:description: Mmusi Maimane is making history as the first black leader of the South Africa's Democratic Alliance. og:url: https://time.com/video/tQpWg9Ru/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/tQpWg9Ru/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the first black leader of South Africa's main opposition party twitter:description: Mmusi Maimane is making history as the first black leader of the South Africa's Democratic Alliance. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/tQpWg9Ru/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Meet the first black leader of South Africa's main opposition party > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Meet the first black leader of South Africa's main opposition party [Watch (HLS stream): Meet the first black leader of South Africa's main opposition party](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tQpWg9Ru.m3u8) (2:57)  _Published 2016-07-27. Mmusi Maimane is making history as the first black leader of the South Africa's Democratic Alliance._ --- Jul 27, 2023 8:23 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [What to Know About South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel](/video/w0IvvAPQ/) ### What to Know About South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel [South Africa's Private Game Reserves Struggle in Pandemic](/video/KlBT6iAU/) ### South Africa's Private Game Reserves Struggle in Pandemic [Cyril Ramaphosa Set to be South Africa's New President](/video/BCoKZhDo/) ### Cyril Ramaphosa Set to be South Africa's New President --- ## Transcript I've walked into places where I have thought to myself, why do I need to audition for legitimacy as a black person? Because I'm with Rep? That's unacceptable. [ MUSIC ] He rose quickly from political obscurity becoming leader of South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, in 2015. And that's what your critics say, that you are just really a symbol, a black face leading a white party. Today in South Africa race still matters. The South African media have dubbed him the Obama of Soweto. [ MUSIC ] How do you feel that band? Do you know when people ask me that question, I say Sydney would be better than being compared to the Mukambe or some other place. I mean I'm a fan Fan of president Obama. But I was much more a fan of Bill Clinton in terms of his contribution to the US at the time. But I think that change motif is an important one for South Africa now. Maybe not ten years ago, but certainly nowadays. We shall build a society in which all South Africans, both black and white Will be able to walk tall, a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world. The Rainbow Nation Project has failed. We need a leader to continue it. We need a leader to say, look, you don't have to be black to fight against racists. What this government is doing is governing in a way as if Black lives really don't matter. The generation of leaders who started The Rainbow Nation Project have faded, and the voices that are on the rise are those who seek to divide. [ MUSIC ] In 94, not all the racists died. Whatever your view is, it's not like they suddenly went off to sea and We had [ INAUDIBLE ] of who's a racist and who's not. My wife is white and I often remind her, say you come from privilege, and you must understand that even though from an income point of view, you might not have felt that way. But there was never a debate about the fact that you'd end up at university and I wouldn't. So understand that, and know That you have a role in South Africa to contribute towards building an integrated society. The job that we had to do is educate and transform society. I think it's possible. I still trust the human being. I think human beings have got a better chance of successfully being transformed, rather than law to force people to We took a chance. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Meet the first black leader of South Africa's main opposition party","description":"Mmusi Maimane is making history as the first black leader of the South Africa's Democratic Alliance.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/tQpWg9Ru/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-07-27T21:50:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tQpWg9Ru.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/tQpWg9Ru/","duration":"PT2M57S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/tQpWg9Ru/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```