Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille is to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu to discuss his stated intention not to vote in next year's elections.

Writing in her weekly newsletter on the DA website, Zille said Tutu had agreed to meet her to discuss the comments he made to the Sunday Times last week.

"I aim to convince him that if he wants South Africa to be a thriving constitutional democracy, and if he wants to see a revival of the Rainbow Nation (a term he coined), then he must do two things.

"He must not only reject the ANC in the 2009 election, but he must also familiarise himself with the DA's policies and then make an informed choice on how to vote," she said.

The tumultuous political events of the past few weeks had been good for South Africa.

These included former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota's criticism of the ANC and the suggestion that he would lead a breakaway party, and the apparent subsiding of the racial mudslinging that had dominated the political discourse for so long.

"A new debate is emerging over values, policies and principles. That a politician of Lekota's stature has openly expressed views about the ANC that the DA has long espoused is an encouraging sign that our democracy is maturing.

"But every silver lining has a cloud," Zille said.

This was Tutu's interview with the Sunday Times, in which he said if an election were held the next day, he would be "sufficiently unhappy [with the ANC] not to vote".

"In the same breath, he lamented the lack — in his view — of 'a viable opposition... one that gives the impression that it could become an alternative government'."

An editorial in the same newspaper endorsed Tutu's sentiments.

"It is not often that I disagree with Archbishop Tutu, but his comments earlier this week, it has to be said, were both reckless and misguided," Zille said.

"I also cannot agree with the view expressed in a number of newspaper editorials that Tutu, by expressing his intention to opt out of voting, showed leadership."

If every South African who was disillusioned with the ANC adopted Tutu's view on voting, "we would live in a one-party state; a state whose office-bearers become increasingly corrupt and drunk with absolute power", she said.

"It should also occur to someone as insightful as Archbishop Desmond Tutu that the approach he advocates is precisely what undermines the capacity of opposition parties to become alternative governments.

"If he does not vote, Archbishop Tutu will serve to entrench and prolong the very set of conditions — the slide into one-partyism — that he bemoans.

"There is, of course, a very clear policy choice for South Africans.

"It is between the DA's open opportunity-driven society for all and the ANC's closed, patronage-driven society for some.

"This is a concise summary of the policy options that have either led to progress or decline in countries for centuries.

"Clear policy alternatives for South Africans have never been more available, or more stark," Zille said.

Sapa