When The Economist labelled Africa "The Hopeless Continent" 10 years ago, the magazine was suggesting that the downward spiral towards the failed state is inevitable in Africa. We know it is not, says Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille in her weekly newsletter.

"We are making a different choice. More and more South Africans want our politics to be an open contest of ideas and values, rather than a closed circle of conflict between race groups. Very few complex plural societies have made this choice," says Zille

She says race is a powerful mobiliser. So are culture, language, and religion. "These things shape our identity. Our need to belong is real and important to us all. But more and more, South Africans are realising that making a different political choice is not a threat to their identity. In fact, quite the reverse. Each of us can confidently be who we are only if we secure that right for everyone else. Each time we stand up for another’s rights, we defend our own."

Zilled says South Africans are, increasingly, choosing to value each other by what Martin Luther King described as the “content of our characters”, not the colour of our skins. We are choosing to come together on a platform of shared values – integrity, fairness, service, tolerance, the quest for excellence. All of these override the things that separate us.

She says South Africans who are making this choice are coming together in the Democratic Alliance. It is the reason why the DA has become, in Professor Lawrence Schlemmer’s words, “the most non-racial party South Africa has ever had.”

"Many of us don’t realise just how significant our progress has been. It sometimes takes an outsider to point this out. During the World Cup I was privileged to meet international leaders who, without exception, understand the DA’s epoch-making achievements. They know that Africa cannot succeed unless South Africa’s democracy succeeds," Zille says.