EDITORIAL | DA refuses to back down on posters, but it really should

The DA is faced with the task of putting out another fire, this time over controversial election banners in Phoenix, Durban. But instead of trying to douse the flames, the party is seemingly fanning them by saying that not only were the posters going to stay up but others were going to be erected elsewhere across KwaZulu-Natal.

The banners read: “The ANC called you racists. The DA calls you heroes.”

Much of the controversy is around the location where the banners first went up. Phoenix was one of the Durban suburbs hardest hit during the violent failed insurrection in July. There, 36 people died, 30 of them shot.

Racial tensions between Indian and black communities were high during and in the aftermath of the looting, protesting, violence and, at times, vigilante responses. Various organisations and the provincial government have since moved to try to quell those tensions by hosting a “peace march” and establishing dialogues between the communities.

The DA’s posters, many have argued, undo any attempts at unity.

The election paraphernalia in question have been branded racist and have been heavily criticised by not just wide sections of SA society, but former party members and even the DA’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Dr Mpho Phalatse.

Three dozen people died in violence that, without doubt, was underpinned by both subtle and overt racism, and the DA cannot try to gloss over that with political rhetoric and finger-pointing under the guise of nuance.

Calling on the DA to apologise, Phalatse said on Wednesday: “Lives were lost in Phoenix, innocent people died and we did not look at that when we put up those posters.”

Former DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko went in even harder on Twitter on Tuesday, saying: “Making political hay out of one of the most devastating waves of racially-motivated violence in our country’s democratic history is not just cynical. It is despicable. Every single decisionmaker who approved that poster campaign should resign.”

It emerged late on Wednesday that, according to DA sources, senior party sources were pushing for national leadership to concede that the posters sent the wrong message to voters over the issue of race and should be taken down. It was not clear at the time of writing whether or not a final decision had been taken, but earlier on Wednesday, DA leader John Steenhuisen defended the posters. The party wouldn’t apologise, he said — and that it wasn’t doing anything that the EFF and the ANC did not do when they visited Phoenix in the aftermath of the July killings.

“I will call them heroes and I will continue to call them heroes because they did not retreat in the face of danger, they did not hide away like SAPS and Bheki Cele when things got real. They are heroes whether they be black, white, Indian or coloured as we saw during those terrible days in KwaZulu-Natal. They are heroes because they stepped up when the government stepped away,” he said.

This, however, simply doesn’t remove the context of what happened in Phoenix during those dark, violent July days. It is a context that many might want to ignore or to brush aside, but it is not possible to do so.

Three dozen people died in violence that, without doubt, was underpinned by both subtle and overt racism, and the DA cannot try to gloss over that with political rhetoric and finger-pointing under the guise of nuance.

The posters are in poor taste at best, and reckless at worst.

SA is a racially diverse country with a long and painful history of divisions and discrimination. It is therefore incumbent upon its citizens, especially political parties because they wield so much power and influence, to ensure that this diversity is not turned into a fault-line rather than a strength. It is their duty to promote unity and reconciliation, even in circumstances where exploiting differences may seem to provide short-term gains.

We believe that it is not too late for the DA to correct its mistake and return calm by withdrawing the posters and apologising.