The DA is a hoax that bends its policy to the prevailing wind

So last week Solly Malatsi, the DA’s latest national spokesperson, responded to a simple question posed by Simon Grindrod: What does the DA actually stand for? It is not really a question that uniquely belongs to Grindrod. In fact, it is the question I am asked most often.

The problem with the DA is that it is basically a PR machine that settles on values and policy positions based on polling and focus groups. It doesn’t authentically believe in anything. In the process it constantly exposes itself as dishonest and schizophrenic.

When the DA campaigns in black areas it says things it thinks black people want to hear.

When the DA hosts meetings in white areas it changes the message out of fear of alienating its core supporters. What an insult to the vast majority of white South Africans who want to see our country succeed in a socially and economically just and sustainable way.

In 2016 I was the DA’s mayoral campaign manager in Cape Town. Every day and every night, for seven months, we campaigned across the metropolitan area repeating the promises in the DA’s manifesto. We were rewarded with a massive mandate and two-thirds of the vote.

However, when we tried to implement the party policies and election promises of transformation and integration, printed in beautiful glossy documents, we soon found out that most of the councillors elected under a DA banner, as well as the national leadership of the DA, were not committed to those promises. I resigned from the DA because it is a hoax.

Its leadership, and many of its public representatives, can recite the printed values and latest campaign mantra when they go through the candidate selection process, or make a speech. But they don’t actually hold those values, nor regard policies and election promises as real commitments.

My experience has now been confirmed by DA MP Gwen Ngwenya, who resigned as head of policy. In her letter, dated

January 18, she says “the bottom line is that I do not believe the DA takes policy seriously”.

The DA knows it needs to grow its support among black South Africans if it is to be relevant. So for a few years the mantra that we all had to be able to recite was: “Redress, reconciliation, delivery and diversity” — it was called “R2D2” for short.

The commitment to “redress and reconciliation” is the DA’s Achilles heel; it lacks the courage and leadership to do what it takes.

No-one in the DA talks about R2D2 anymore — it requires some action and it can be measured. Today it’s the far more nebulous promise of “One South Africa for All”.

Back to Grindrod’s question. Malatsi could have responded by saying these are our policy positions and this is what we stand for.

However, he could not do that since, as Ngwenya has made clear, the DA is deeply conflicted about policy and is unable to commit to any policy positions.

Instead of addressing the question asked by Grindrod, Malatsi assumes Grindrod is a member of the Good party and launches an attack on Good and its leadership. As far as I know, Grindrod is not a member of Good and Malatsi’s instinct to launch an attack on Good is telling.

Malatsi wrote that Patricia de Lille and I are facing criminal charges for “maladministration or worse”. This is an outright lie.

Under great pressure from the DA national leadership, the speaker of council announced on October 30 last year that he had reported De Lille and me to the South African Police Service for “possible corruption”. This was an act of party interference in the administration of the city.

The DA leadership were worried beyond their wits that De Lille would not resign on October 31, as had been agreed, and this evening press statement was meant to add some pressure.

It was nothing more than political theatre.

It is based on absolutely nothing. In fact, the Bowmans investigation found no suggestion by anybody — no inference, no allegation, no prima facie evidence and no direct evidence — of any corruption.

The DA abused an ostensibly independent investigation, which it orchestrated, to pursue an internal political agenda. Malatsi’s statement is false, dishonest and defamatory.

Notwithstanding Malatsi’s false narrative, his inability to address Grindrod’s simple question, and the contents of Ngwenya’s lengthy resignation letter, confirm that the DA really is a hoax.

A vote for the DA is a waste of a vote. It lacks leadership and the courage to lead this country.

Herron, a former DA councillor and member of the Cape Town mayoral committee, is secretary-general of Good