Two prominent DA MPs are urging the party's upcoming national congress to reject proposed changes to its constitution aimed at broadening racial diversity, saying they clash with DA liberal values.
In a letter to conference delegates, Gavin Davis and Michael Cardo described the proposed amendments as "yet another attempt to turn the DA into a diluted version of the ANC".
The letter, titled "Real progressives reject groupthink", slammed a proposal aimed at making the party leadership more representative of the country's demographics.
Davis, a former special adviser to Western Cape premier Helen Zille, was until last year the DA's policy chief. Cardo has previously served as a director of policy research for Zille, and the two men are seen as part of a group of DA leaders resisting moves to transform the party.
Heated debate about race and transformation is expected at the DA congress in Pretoria next month.
The party has over the years tried to shake off the perception that it mainly represents the interests of white South Africans.
Insiders say that the party's discussions over how to attract more black voters pitted a "progressive group" against a number of white male liberals who feared losing their grip on power within the party.One insider said this dispute was reflected in the contest for election as the party's federal chair between Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga and his Nelson Mandela Bay counterpart Athol Trollip.
Trollip, the incumbent, has said he will stand again.
'Black supporters excluded'
The Davis-Cardo letter follows a memorandum to the party's public representatives and leaders sent by DA Gauteng leader John Moodey, who criticised the exclusion of "ordinary voting delegates" from black townships.
In their letter, Davis and Cardo said that at first glance the amendment "to replicate diversity" within party ranks was a welcome initiative, but was too similar to the ANC's doctrine of racial representivity.
"According to the ANC's worldview of 'representivity', every organisation needs to be 'transformed' until its demographic breakdown is an exact mirror of the population as a whole," their letter said.
"The job of each person in the organisation is to represent the racial category that apartheid imposed on them, with little room for individual agency or personal autonomy."
Davis and Cardo also took a swipe at the "progressive" group within the party which is seen to be driving the DA's new direction and is supported by a so-called black caucus. This group is understood to be pushing for Msimanga to take over from Trollip as the new chairman of the party."The 'progressives' (who are almost always quoted anonymously) speak a sort of dialect of ANC-ese, in which terms like racial 'transformation' and demographic 'representivity' are parroted unselfconsciously," the letter said.
"It is up to us to decide our own identity, and nobody has the right to choose our identities for us."
DA KZN MPL Hlanganani Gumbi replied to the letter, dismissing Davis and Cardo's argument and emphasised the need for the party to transform.
"Just recently, in my very own home city, of the 11 elected caucus exco members of eThekwini, not a single one is black. And so the trend continues, not only on race but very often even with gender," he said.
James Selfe, chairman of the DA federal council, played down the Davis-Cardo letter, saying it was part of an ongoing debate in the party and was "no big deal".
He said the proposed amendments had been approved by the party's constitutional review committee, but it was up to the DA conference to take a final decision on them.
"I really don't see anything wrong [in what] is being argued here and it will presumably be argued through the structures of the party," he said.
Skewed delegate allocation
Moodey's memo suggested the party was sidelining its own grassroots supporters in the decision-making process.
He said he had raised the issue at the last federal executive committee meeting and pleaded with DA leaders to change the way the party allocated delegate seats for its conference.Currently a geographical area is allocated delegates according to the number of elected public representatives it has.
This means that in black townships that do not have many DA councillors, relatively few delegates go to the party conference even though the districts might have many active DA members.
"It is these dedicated DA members who make up the largest contingent at our marches and rallies," Moodey said in the memo. These are the people that the DA can depend upon to do the [legwork] in our various campaigns, by doing door-to-door visits and selling the DA vision in often hostile environments."
One party insider said just four voting delegates from Soweto would be at the conference next month...