De Klerk is a forefather of the DA
I read the Democratic Alliance’s reaction to the Mail & Guardian’s lead story (“Is FW de Klerk tutoring Mmusi Maimane?”, January 29) with perplexed interest.
At the heart of my confusion was the manner in which DA leader Mmusi Maimane and his adoptive mother, Helen “Nontsapho” Zille, reacted so defensively and offensively to the M&G story.
The bellicose reaction suggested that the DA did not want any political association with De Klerk.
Yet the DA is the offspring of the merger between De Klerk’s New National Party and the Democratic Party of Tony Leon in 2002. The DA’s DNA has been influenced by both party’s genes.
De Klerk remains one of the DA’s forefathers. Why would Maimane and Zille disown his contribution? The answer is hypocrisy and the management of black people for the sake of votes.
It is clear that the DA is led by two-faced leaders and political chameleons. They cite former president Nelson Mandela as their hero, yet the DA’s governance and service delivery practices are aimed at nothing but the preservation and promotion of white interests.
By virtue of its political lineage, the DA will always be an apologist for whites, with the interests of blacks at the bottom of the list of its priorities.
Maimane is typical of a cosmetic change made to the DA to lure black voters in a bid to sustain ill-gotten white privileges.
DA member Penny Sparrow (with her racist tweet) and Diane Kohler Barnard (the DA MP who professed admiration for PW Botha) were subjected to disciplinary procedures for sharing the truth, values and principles of the DA with the public.
Blacks should not be fooled by these actions or by Maimane’s public rebuke of racists in his party. This is nothing but political expediency.
Black and white material conditions in the Western Cape, the only DA-run province, confirm the skewed service delivery patterns in favour of whites.
Maimane should admit in public that De Klerk and other apartheid leaders are the forefathers of the DA and stop misleading black people with empty rhetoric about Mandela and the Freedom Charter.