HELEN ZILLE, a doyenne of South Africa's liberal opposition, knew it was time to go when she stepped down as leader of the Democratic Alliance (da) two years ago. Ms Zille, a white woman, had fought hard, first against apartheid and later to build the party into a plausible alternative to the ruling African National Congress (anc). She then took a back seat in the party to allow the rise of a young, black leader, Mmusi Maimane, even as she kept her position as premier (governor) of the Western Cape, the only province won by the opposition. "I had fortuitously avoided the fate of most politicians, captured in the aphorism 'There is no comfortable end to a political career; only death or disgrace,'" Ms Zille boasted in her autobiography of 2016.
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