South Africa?s largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is meeting to choose a new leader.

After 13 years, Tony Leon is stepping down and the favourite to succeed him is the mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille.

The 56-year-old has made it clear that if she is successful, she wants to retain her position as mayor. The Democratic Alliance is criticized for being too white and middle-class, and has consistently failed to attract large numbers of black voters.

At the party's conference this weekend, there will be a three-way contest to decide who takes over the leadership. Outgoing leader Tony Leon admits that race is still a problem in South Africa.

?We've got to move out of the politics of identity to the politics of issue. The weakness of South Africa's young democracy is the lack of strong opposition in parliament. The governing African National Congress (ANC) holds 73% of the seats in the National Assembly; the Democratic Alliance has just 12%.