Transformation of the DA will happen from the bottom up

What should one make of the DA’s national congress held at the weekend? What was the upshot of what was billed as a divisive “race debate”? Can the party be a real alternative to the ANC at the polls? Why does it feel the need to perpetually redefine its values? Where is the DA going?

For delegates, the congress was a rousing event that will have the effect of sending them back to their branches with newfound commitment and enthusiasm.

The DA is excellent at putting on a show with all the trappings of a US political party congress, with entertainment, lighting, balloons and confetti, dispersed with freedom songs and shouts of amandla!

It was also though an intriguing political moment: the DA is a party that is being changed from the bottom, despite the best efforts of those at the top to control its direction. In sum, it was a fascinating congress.

First there was the “diversity” or race debate. At a high philosophical level this was about the individual versus the group and which is paramount.

Some, including party leader Mmusi Maimane, who has made it clear he wants to see more black leaders in the party, proposed that the DA’s constitution include a commitment for the party to “replicate diversity”. Whenever he has been asked, Maimane has insisted that this does not mean support for racial quotas. Not everyone believed him. The proposal sparked a furious debate.

Some among the DA leadership corps who regard themselves as “liberals” balked at the idea, arguing the notion of “replicating diversity” was similar to the governing ANC’s language of “representivity”.

The liberals argued that this was one step away from championing group rights through numerical targets and quotas.

While intensely and publicly debated in the weeks leading to the congress, by the time the diversity issue reached the congress floor all had been settled through a deal.

Unanimously, it was agreed that the DA would “continue to take active steps to promote diversity in its own ranks” while at the same time it would reject the notion of measuring this through numerical targets and quotas. It was a win-win outcome. Those who wanted greater representivity in the party got it inserted into the DA’s constitution as one of four values; those who feared quotas got a prohibition of them inserted into the DA’s principles in its constitution. Both sides felt they had won.

Ironically — even though this was the key debate at the congress — the DA is by far SA’s most diverse party.

While the support base is mainly composed of racial minorities, the majority of the DA’s leaders are black. Eight out of nine provincial leaders are black and its national leadership is racially although not gender diverse.

So the argument was less about the principle of diversity and more about its practical implications. At its heart was what matters most in a modern political party: who gets to be a candidate for public office and of these who gets to hold the plum jobs in government.

While the traditional “liberals” may have felt good that they had secured the rights of the individual over the group, the political reality was that this was a defensive response to pressures from a membership and support base that is changing the party. For this group, which has comfortably appropriated what once were ANC songs and slogans and made them part of the DA, it is the ANC’s political culture — along with quotas for women and an emphasis on group identity — that is the main frame of reference.

A TOP-DOWN ATTEMPT TO INTRODUCE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY PROPOSALS WENT BADLY AWRY

The pressure for change from below was also evident in the policy resolutions. A top-down attempt to introduce new economic policy proposals went badly awry. The first was the proposal for an exemption certificate for job seekers. This would enable anyone who had been searching for a job without success to make a deal with an employer to forgo the minimum wage.

This was loudly and unequivocally rejected from the floor, and several delegates spoke out on how the minimum wage was there to protect workers.

Somehow, though, in a fractious and heated session the motion (according the official accounts) was carried. The outcome is certain to be questioned. Most people on the floor were unaware of its passing; others were unsure afterwards what the decision had been.

Again, the DA leadership found itself swimming against an ANC current. While it held the line this time, by hook or by crook, there will be much more change in the offing in future.