Port Elizabeth, South Africa - South Africa's new opposition leader is a young, black politician with a talent for oratory and slick campaigning -- leading some local press to dub him the "Obama of Soweto".
Mmusi Maimane, 34, dismisses such comparisons, but he is set to play a major role at an uncertain time in South African politics after being elected leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party on Sunday.
Raised in the township of Soweto -- heartland of the anti-apartheid struggle -- Maimane joined the DA only in 2009.
He was soon identified by senior party figures as a man who could help it break out of its white-dominated support base.
Maimane was born in a district west of Johannesburg and moved to Soweto as a boy, experiencing the cruelties of apartheid and racial segregation laws at first hand.
A devout Christian, he has a Masters Degree in Theology and regularly preaches at church.
He met his white wife Natalie in church, and lists an Irish priest who stayed in the township as one of the people who had an influence on his early life.
As parliamentary leader of the DA, he has bared his teeth during debates, calling President Jacob Zuma a "thief" and a "broken man" during one of many heated clashes.
AFP
