Maimane: DA failure will be ANC’s saving grace

The DA’s failure to see past race will be the ANC’s saving grace, Build One SA leader Mmusi Maimane has said.

Maimane, a former leader of the DA, hit out at the official opposition party on Monday for using identity politics in particular race instead of providing a vision based on the shared interests of the country.

Numerous polls, including one by the ANC itself, show that the governing party will struggle to attain the 50% plus one it requires to govern. But it has gone all out, enlisting the services of former leaders such as Thabo Mbeki, David Mabuza, Kgalema Motlanthe and Baleka Mbete.

The DA, together with parties like GOOD and the Patriotic Alliance, are in a serious competition for the coloured vote in the Western Cape ahead.

“Parties are interested in consolidating constituencies on biological issues. Identity politics is not ideal. It is in the interest of SA that there be shared interests,” Maimane said in an interview with Business Day.

The DA is campaigning on a “rescue SA platform” in a bid to get the party’s traditional white voters out on election day.

It recently published a controversial election advertisement on national television of a burning SA flag, a move widely castigated by other political parties and analysts. President Cyril Ramaphosa referred to the advert as treasonous.

“While some are burning flags in their adverts and others are telling falsehoods about their 30-year tenure in government. It is more of the same predictable behaviour from the old parties, without a single new idea or credible vision for SA,” Maimane said. “This is further evidenced by the fact that ethno-nationalist parties are all on the rise.”

TRADITIONAL

Maimane, who unseated the ANC in the Joburg and Tshwane through DA-led opposition party coalitions after the 2016 local government elections, was shown the door by the DA in 2021 after the party lost some of its traditional support to smaller opposition parties.

He is now contesting the May 29 general election as leader of Build One SA.

While critical of opposition political parties for not providing an alternative vision for SA, Maimane acknowledged that if the ANC fails to win a majority in the national and provincial polls, his party would lend its support to a DA-led coalition.

“2024 is not 1994. It could be a second transition. We cannot coalesce on corruption or colour. We need a grand coalition of the opposition,” he said.

“What I want to see from all parties is a vision and plan on energy, Transnet, infrastructure build, around broadband. If we are, in fact, going to create jobs in townships, we need digital infrastructure, kids staying in school through a voucher system and delivering communities that are safe,” Maimane said.

He said that if voters did not lend support to new political parties in these elections, SA would face five more years of social and economic decline.

TRADITIONAL

On possible coalition talks after the elections, he said political parties are going to try to win “in the boardroom” what they have not won on the streets.

“How will they go into coalition talks with a vision and a plan? We need leadership in the boardroom and the stoop. You cannot walk into coalition talks without acknowledging people you disagree with as a starting point.” He said that was how he succeeded in 2016 to create the coalitions in Tshwane and Johannesburg.