One of the most enduring fallacies of the new South Africa has been that the election of a black DA leader will bring about a windfall of black votes to the party. This doesn't hold water. Mamphela Ramphele was a widely admired leader whose policies were pretty similar to those of the DA. Her entry into politics did not bring about the much-heralded windfall of black votes to her Agang. The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, under Clarence Makwetu and others in 1994, was widely touted as a challenger to the ANC. Its policies were - except on race issues - broadly what the EFF represents today. It has not elicited more than 1% of the vote in five successive national elections. Neither has the party born of the activism of Steve Biko, the Azanian People's Organisation.Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa attracted 7% of the vote to the COPE in 2009 and then embarked on one of the most unseemly political suicides of recent times. The admirable Bantu Holomisa's United Democratic Movement battles along with support of about 1% after 16 years of hard graft.Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party has been shedding support and votes consistently since 1994. There is no doubt in my mind that it will cease to exist when Buthelezi retires or dies.All these parties are led by black people. Some of these leaders - Buthelezi, for instance, and the Economic Freedom Fighters' Julius Malema - are blessed with powerful oratorical skills. Some of these parties have decent enough policies. Yet they have failed, over the past 21 years, to give the ANC sleepless nights.What, therefore, leads so many to believe that a DA led by Mmusi Maimane will receive a windfall of black votes by dint of his being black? If Maimane and his fellow leaders are banking on race to unseat the ANC they are on a hiding to nothing.To my mind Maimane will have to concentrate on a political programme that begins to speak to black constituents in a way that none of the parties above have. He has to be revolutionary. The party of opposition that Tony Leon and Helen Zille have built assiduously over the past 21 years needs to begin a process of also becoming a party of belonging, of empathy, of trust, if it is to attract the millions more black voters that it needs to become a real contender for national government.The way to do this is two-pronged. First, there is absolutely no reason to stop being tough on corruption and general malfeasance in the current government. So, like Leon and Zille and Lindiwe Mazibuko before him, he must not let up on pointing out the rot in state institutions and the frenzied feeding that high-powered and connected individuals are involved in at the moment.In this sense Maimane has to be tough and relentless and ruthless. He cannot take his foot off the pedal. At the moment he is seen as slightly weaker on some of these issues than, say, a Malema. There are very important local elections taking place in a year. If Maimane stops applying the pressure now he will see the DA lose - badly.It cannot, however, mount a one-track campaign. The second track must be fashioned by the DA from a message that begins to speak to the hearts of the massive number of South Africans who, although they can see that the ANC that delivered their freedom, the party that is hard-wired into their DNA, has lost its way, are nonetheless sceptical of everyone else.They are not sceptical because of race only. They have been sceptical of the PAC, COPE, the IFP, UDM, EFF and everyone else. If it were an issue of race many would have gone to the PAC or COPE or someone else. They didn't.The ANC's strength for the past 65 years has been a political programme that speaks to the hearts and minds of South Africans. It has always had a plan to present to the people of South Africa.Read through the South African political history of the past 65 years and you will find political parties that have vented their anger and frustration but have lacked a political programme that connects with the hearts and minds of our people.Say what you will about the ANC, it has been a master at offering hope and an associated programme to South Africa. Through this it has built up a huge store of trust among voters. The DA will have to find a way to build that sort of trust.Maimane's blackness might very well help when he knocks at the doors of black South Africans. Once in the house, though, he needs to speak to their hearts and convince them that the DA has a plan that will make their lives, and those of their children, better .The ANC is increasingly failing to do this but it doesn't mean that Maimane will be handed the ball merely because he is black...