MAX DU PREEZ | The DA must unwhiten and close the chapter on factionalism

The efficiency with which the DA governs the Western Cape and most of the municipalities in the province is probably the main reason so many middle-class South Africans have moved south in recent times.

I have been living in the province for more than two decades and I don’t have many complaints. Mind you, I’m in the middle class. People living in the townships and informal settlements may feel differently. Still, if these areas were worse off than their equivalents in other provinces, why would such large numbers of people from the Eastern Cape still relocate to Cape Town and surrounds?

I am on record that I regard the premier of the Western Cape, Allan Winde, as the best politician in SA today. He runs a tight ship, he’s accessible and he’s not a loud-mouthed ideologue.

I would say where the DA registers a two or three on the Richter scale of corruption and mismanagement, the ANC and EFF are around the eight mark. Of course corruption occurs in DA administrations, but it is still considered scandalous, whereas the tendency in the ANC and EFF is to obfuscate, sweep it under the rug or camouflage it with racial rhetoric.

In a country where bad governance and corruption are the biggest problems, on paper the DA thus appears to be the natural choice for voters. Why would you vote for crooks and incompetents if there are clean and capable alternatives?

Sadly, it doesn’t work like this.

Voters don’t easily vote for a party they can’t fully associate with, a party they don’t think they will feel at home in. Voters want to see themselves in their party of choice. Not many voters here or in other democracies vote purely strategically. History, race and class still play a big role in voters’ choice of party.

The DA has had the label of being a white-controlled party focused on white interests from its inception, something eagerly exploited by its political opponents. This started changing when credible black and brown politicians were recruited into the party and some became national and provincial leaders. The DA was set to cross the threshold of a third of the national vote and grow from there.

The charm and promise of Cyril Ramaphosa and the high expectations of his New Dawn when he became president retarded this growth curve. But what should have been a temporary setback became a catastrophe when the DA started ripping itself apart and the machinations of a few power-hungry ideological puritans in the leadership drove several senior black leaders out of the party.

The DA is set to elect a new leadership this weekend. It looks likely that John Steenhuisen will become national leader.

He is a capable politician and effective parliamentarian. But the perception is that he is siding with the so-called classic liberals in the party, a strong lobby group that is paranoid about any mention of race in policy and the slightest whiff of what they call African nationalism.

This grouping, entrenched in the senior leadership structures and in parliament, has been alienating black DA members even more. The treatment given to Steenhuisen’s opponent in the leadership election, Mbali Ntuli, like banning her from addressing an open meeting in Cape Town, strengthened this perception.

The DA has had the label of being a white-controlled party focused on white interests from its inception, something eagerly exploited by its political opponents.

Card-carrying members of the DA who want to see their party become a real force in national politics again will now have to raise their voices and let the new leadership know that the “whitening” of the party and the almost fanatical focus on regaining the support of voters who abandoned the DA for the Freedom Front Plus must end quickly.

Ntuli has committed virtually her whole adult life to the DA and paid a dear price in her social environment for it. She is a hugely talented and charismatic leader, and by far the most popular DA politician outside the DA’s own structures.

It would be a disaster for the party if Ntuli were so alienated that she felt she had to leave the DA. Ntuli and the remaining cohort of black leaders are the key to growth of the party.

My honest view is that the DA leadership was keen to recruit black support and black leaders, but that the unspoken condition was that they should not think for themselves or bring their own ideas and proposals. They were loved and cherished as long as they parroted the narrative of the white liberals.

I am not a DA supporter and I have never voted for it on a national ticket. I have, however, voted DA at municipal and provincial level, purely because I thought it in my own interest to have them rather than the ANC govern my province and municipality.

And yet I would like to see the DA grow. Like all genuine democrats, I believe there should be a vibrant, vigorous opposition. I also don’t believe the ANC deserves to govern the country after the 2024 election. I would like to see a centrist party rather than the EFF govern in coalition with the ANC if the ANC comes in under 50% of the vote, but no other party has a clear majority. I fear for my country and its economy if that coalition party is the EFF.

After the coming leadership election, Steenhuisen will be able to stop looking over his shoulder and embark on broadening the DA’s base, making it a genuine social democratic party, where black and brown democrats will feel at home.

That will mean hearing and listening to the voices of leaders and members such as Ntuli and tempering  the shrill voices of some of the reactionary whites in leadership and parliament.

If you are a DA member, my advice is that you speak up in your branch, your region and your province, and send a message to the leadership that the unpleasant chapter of factionalism, power games, pettiness and exclusion be closed and that the party establishes itself as a truly nonracial party fighting for the poor, a home for all democrats who are sick of corruption, the abuse of power and ethnic politicking.

• Max du Preez is the publisher of vryweekblad.com.