De Lille quit amid ideological tension
Because of its size, the ANC tends to attract more attention than the DA. We know much more about the ANC’s internal dynamics than we do about what is going on inside the DA.
There is a greater search for bad news about the ANC, which is matched impressively by our insatiable appetite for good news about the DA.
In fact, rumour and innuendo about the ANC and its leaders are treated as biblical truth, while rumour and innuendo about the DA and its leaders are regarded as conspiracy theories.
The ANC leaders have destroyed the image of what was once a “glorious movement of our people”.
As a result, it has become quite easy for some among us to imagine that the sins of the DA, past and present, can be erased and cleansed by the ANC’s sins and failures.
The DA is, therefore, imagined by some to be the moral other of the ANC.
Despite the growth in the number of black people who vote for and are members of the DA, one of the things that shields the DA from criticism and scrutiny is the fact that some regard it as “the great white hope”, the one political party that will reverse the ravages of liberation and restore SA to its natural position — a country in which black people will not imagine freedom to mean freedom from the cultural and economic dominance of whiteness. In this country, the idea of non-racialism has relocated to the post-racial illusory land of the DA.
In short, the DA is not only the moral other in relation to the sins of ANC incumbency, but is seen to be the beginnings of a new moral-political order by an increasing number of black people. Because of its moral status, our moral compasses tend to point accusingly towards the ANC because of the gap between what it was and what it has become.
The DA is true north. In our partial-sightedness we forget that true north is elusive, as elusive as serious analysis of internal DA dynamics.
Fortunately for Patricia de Lille, this is the context in which she resigned as the DA’s Western Cape leader last week. It is for this reason we must take it at face value that her resignation had nothing to do with internal party dynamics. She just needs more time to focus on her work as executive mayor of Cape Town.
So, what follows is an account of internal DA dynamics, but I must stress the fact that they had absolutely nothing to do with her resignation.
The internal challenges that face the DA have been taking shape since the Democratic Party (DP) — the precursor of the DA — displaced the New National Party (NNP) as the official opposition.
At first, the main objective was to maximise support among white voters. Success in this regard came with its own challenges.
Tony Leon, the former DA leader and the man who presided over the 1999 electoral successes as well as the formation of the DA, the merger between the NNP and the DP among others, also presided over tensions between the old liberals (the Progs) and the conservative and sometimes illiberal elements from the NNP.
In the Western Cape, these conservatives were led by former DA Western Cape leader Theuns Botha. But some of the old Progs and conservative elements became part of new tensions, which were caused by the blackening of the party. When under Helen Zille the DA went into black areas and courted black voters aggressively, further tensions developed.
Zille turned the DA into a quasi-liberation movement whose members, increasingly black, toyi-toyi and chant freedom songs with their white counterparts watching in bewilderment. The bewilderment is turning into a deep sense of loss. The blackening of the DA has caused ideological tensions.
The nonexistent “black caucus”, a figment of my imagination, is uncomfortable with the DA’s ambiguity, or dishonesty, about redress and the land question even after the party proclaimed at the end of 2013 that “race remains the main indicator of disadvantage in SA”.
Somehow, the increase in the number of black members and supporters has caused some old and not so old Progs to imagine that the blackening of the party will compromise the DA’s liberal values and traditions. But I must hasten to add that the ideological tensions are not always between black and white because not all black DA members and leaders are uncomfortable with the party’s ambiguity to issues such as BEE, employment equity and land reform.
I will not go into racial, generational and ideological fights for the soul of Mmusi Maimane. All I will say is this — if De Lillie were white it would have been said she is assertive — not bossy.
THE NONEXISTENT ‘BLACK CAUCUS’ … IS UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE DA’S AMBIGUITY OR DISHONESTY, ABOUT REDRESS AND THE LAND QUESTION