Correct the cliché of the DA’s image
IN A PICK and choose criticism entitled “Dithering DA are at a crossroads” (The Star Opinion, February 26), JJ Tabane attempts to argue that the DA remains found wanting on issues of diversity, particularly in terms of race and gender and still has the physical appearance and composition of a party committed to protecting white minority interests, which it cannot shake off.
Without actually engaging with the merits of such a banal and worn-out assertion, he claims that the circumstances relating to certain black female leaders in the party indicates that “not all is well” in the DA where equality and racial prejudice are concerned.
This patently false narrative is all too often regurgitated by columnists, opinion makers and political opponents with little or no interrogation of the facts at hand and has gone unchallenged for far too long. It has almost become the de facto norm in South Africa and requires a response rooted in fact.
The DA’s value system finds its genesis in liberalism, of which a central principle is diversity. This by its very nature applies across racial and gender lines – although not confined to such. It informs how the organisation acts, thinks and feels. Liberals the world over celebrate and aim to achieve diversity, in terms of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, culture and ethnicity. The DA is no different.
The DA is a leader on the continent when it comes to party diversification. The goal is not for one race, one gender, or one culture to supersede another, but rather for the creation of a society where our strengths lie in our differences. The challenging of existing norms, cultures and ways of thinking is the way civilisation has progressed over centuries. Thus we encourage active diversification, not suppress it.
Mmusi Maimane has strived for the attainment of diversity in every aspect of his leadership and within the party. And the facts support this.
Today, DA caucuses across national, provincial and local structures are more diverse than ever before. Where they are not, diversity targets have been set to ensure this is stimulated. At senior leadership level, the federal executive is composed of 28 people of which more than half (15) are black and eight female.
At provincial leadership level, eight of the nine DA provincial leaders are black. Of the party’s four federal chairmanship positions, two are male, two are female, two are black and two are white.
The DA’s national spokesperson is a black female.
In the National Assembly in Parliament, 13 DA shadow ministers are black, including shadow ministers of police, health, social development, rural development and land reform, human settlements, communications, arts and culture, environmental affairs, international relations, sports and recreation, the Presidency, home affairs and public works.
One third of Mmusi Maimane’s shadow cabinet are women and five shadow ministers openly identify as belonging to the LGBTI community. The youngest member of Parliament in SA’s history is a black female. Africa’s first openly gay black member of Parliament is a DA MP.
Of the 34 DA-run municipalities across the country, 19 mayors are black and 15 are white and 11 of the mayors are women. The mayors in the three DA-run municipalities in Gauteng, namely Johannesburg, Tshwane and Midvaal, are black. When it comes to senior positions within staff structures, the pattern continues. The DA’s head of policy is a black female, as is its executive director of communications. Both are under the age of 30.
The DA’s director of provincial communications is a black male, as is the DA’s head of research in Parliament. Both, too, are under the age of 30. Six of the nine DA’s campaign directors in each province are black. Five are female and four are male. And lastly, 63% of all DA members are black.
At every level – age, race, gender and sexual orientation – the DA represents, practices and espouses diversity.
To suggest, as Tabane does, that there is some sort of devious purge of black DA members, and women within the party, is mind-boggling.
He further argues that if certain people of a particular race or gender are accused, charged or found guilty of improper actions, this alone proves the DA has a “diversity problem”.
This false dichotomy must be rejected with the contempt it deserves. One of the DA’s core brand promises is zero tolerance for corruption. That is called the rule of law, and we stand firmly by it. Since Mmusi Maimane was elected DA leader just less than three years ago, he has succeeded in continuing and escalating the diversification of the DA.
As Chinua Achebe once said: “The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify.” Tabane’s simplification of a complex and multi-layered issue is to do exactly that – to fall into the untrue stereotype that the DA is a white party, for white people, comprised of white interests. This simple analysis has no place in our political discourse. Deputy chief of staff in the DA Leader’s Office.