Dithering DA are at a crossroads
It cannot be found wanting on issues of diversity for voters fatigued by ANC graft looking for a new political home
LAST Sunday, on the TV programme Frankly Speaking, the leader of the DA was at pains to say that all was well within the party and that we must not read too much into the departure of yet another black female – Phumzile van Damme. She has apparently left to pursue private interests, which sounds familiar. It was how Lindiwe Mazibuko departed.
Another black female at the exit door is Patricia de Lille, who recently fought off a motion of no confidence against her tabled by her own caucus. DA leader Mmusi Maimane could not explain it away and told us what we already know – that the caucus in Cape Town does not support De Lille.
What is worrisome in the cases of both De Lille and Mazibuko was the disparaging observations about the fact that all is not well in the DA where equality and racial prejudice are concerned.
Mazibuko claimed on her departure that there was a clique of white males running the DA, while the same thing is now being claimed by De Lille, as well as that the DA’s federal executive council has no regard for Maimane’s leadership or that of the party’s Western Cape leader, Bonginkosi Madikizela. And that both are being told what to say on the De Lille matter.
While on the De Lille matter, the DA is in the middle of a corruption scandal, and if De Lille is to be believed, it is also in the middle of a patronage cyclone – with allegations flying thick and fast that De Lille is standing in the way of some powerful people in the DA who want to get their hands on the City of Cape Town’s patronage through desalination tenders. And a businessman has emerged with damning allegations of bribery against De Lille.
In Joburg, DA mayor Herman Mashaba has had to fire three MMCs – all accused of corruption – which he vowed would be a thing of the past. And if that isn’t enough, he too is embroiled in corruption allegations involving his wife.
These are all worrying signals from a party that fancies itself a better government-in-waiting – in fact, a party already in government in four big metros where it governs outright or via a coalition.
For many South Africans looking for a new political home it is a worry that the DA may well be a wolf in a sheepskin and that somewhere in its DNA the DA may well be protecting the privilege of whites.
The country is also severely fatigued with all the ANC corruption that has become second nature in the governing party’s administration, and we could do with a break from it all – except that what is happening in Cape Town and Joburg seems to create a sense that we are headed for the same script, but a different scenario.
But the worry seems to be more about whether the DA is genuinely a home for all. When you observe how Helen Zille has behaved recently, as well as her conduct toward Mazibuko over a piece of legislation meant to deal with equity and redress – it’s hard to shake off the feeling that the DA may be battling with issues of diversity.
I have a lot of time for Maimane – in fact he seems to be the one leader who has championed the cause of non-racialism, especially after the Penny Sparrow debacle.
But politics is also about perceptions. The perceptions that white leaders can get away with what Zille has got away with, while De Lille is suffering hostility from the DA’s federal executive council and her caucus, may well send a bad signal about the DA. It is a matter the party must address more pointedly than its current denials.
Then, the conduct of the DA’s Athol Trollip in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, where structures of the coalition were ignored in dealing with his deputy, sent a worrisome signal about the sustainability of a DA-led coalition leading a national government.
Can society trust the DA to lead if the ANC fails to win the national vote? Or are we going to be faced with more governance instability where ideological schisms will come in the way of practical progress?
The constant bickering between the EFF and DA is also a source of major concern. No one expects these parties to agree on everything, but their public spats do not engender confidence in the so-called “2019 project”, where most people are hoping for a coalition government.
Quite frankly, a coalition between ideological foes will need a heightened level of political maturity to make it work. Trying to show who is boss is not a recipe to run a country. It may not matter at a small muni- cipality in Limpopo, but once you enter the Union Buildings, the world is watching.
The DA – as leader of current coalitions – has to get its act together if it hopes to enter a new phase of governance in South Africa. It is crucial that it succeeds, because there is a growing belief that with the levels of patronage and graft we’ve experienced over the past 24 years, a shared governance may well be the future for this country.
While the ANC may have as much appetite to govern as it has had since 1994, there is a growing realisation that, as has happened at local government, the levels of routine or loyalty voting are waning and the ANC itself may need the DA to co-govern certain provinces and even nationally.
For this to be a success, the DA, like the ANC, has to do thorough introspection about the weaknesses it faces. Complacency, as we’ve seen with the ANC, has no place in the electorally contested terrain.