The DA’s ideological position of toothless Rainbow Nation liberalism is now more evident than ever before, especially when parties like the EFF have given a voice to many black South Africans’ frustrations at the state of the country.
If, indeed, we find ourselves on a crash course between the DA and the EFF for the country, then the DA needs to start doing what it backed away from after the 2019 elections – place competent young black people in key positions within the party and allow them to fully take control of the political vehicle that is the Democratic Alliance.
I thought this as I considered the DA’s core messaging as the 2024 national elections edge nearer. From John Steenhuisen’s re-election as DA leader in April onwards, the party has amped up its new political direction as strictly being anti-EFF.
Aside from the seeds being planted for the Multi-Party Coalition, Steenhuisen infamously noted in his re-election victory speech that the EFF was “public enemy number one” for the DA.
This was further confirmed when Steenhuisen lambasted the EFF for chanting “Kill the Boer” at the 10th birthday celebration at the FNB stadium. And at the DA Gauteng congress a few weeks ago, Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille was incredibly transparent about how she predicted that the future of South African electoral politics was eventually going to be an ideological battle between the DA and the EFF.
The DA is ill-equipped for such a battle. The kind of liberalism employed by the DA makes them unfit for purpose in the current sociopolitical moment, which is far more critical of the negotiated settlement of the early 1990s than almost any other time in the country’s history. Julius Malema, and by proxy, the EFF, understand this.
People love and support Julius Malema, because in him, they found a conduit from which to politically express black anger. Black anger has always been a part of our body politic, from the PAC and Azapo boycotting the Codesa negotiations to the vocal opposition to the entire idea of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to even, more recently, the conversation around Nelson Mandela possibly being a “sell-out” towards black South Africans for his personal enrichment.
And what overarching message does the DA have in response to that? It’s Rainbow Nation liberalism, of course – the idea that forgiveness and reconciliation on the part of black South Africans created a melting pot of diversity and multiculturalism, and that this feel-good spirit is threatened whenever people start talking about race as a perennial proxy for disadvantage.
Instead of confronting the ills of apartheid head-on, Rainbow Nation liberalism looks away, and instead tries to refocus our attention towards some words uttered by Archbishop Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela in the 1990s that, while heartwarming, are incredibly unhelpful to explain and understand today’s politics.
From listening to Steenhuisen or Zille speak, one would think that the 1994 national elections acted as a healing moment where all South Africans lived happily ever after, akin to a movie straight out of Tinseltown.
‘Perfect narrative’ of DA not true for black majority
This “perfect narrative” of racial harmony embodied by black and white children sharing classroom space as well as peanut-butter sandwiches is a cute idea. However, the majority of black South Africans have not had the luxury of this narrative being true for them.
The DA of 2023 either does not get this, or does not care to get it. For them, Julius Malema represents this demonic figure in a children’s movie that the great white knight – and white, he is – will vanquish to send everybody home happy.
If, indeed, the DA will be in direct competition with the EFF, then the blue party will find itself unable to compete with the more forthright political parties of the day. Because, quite frankly, the mythology of the 1990s was not true back then, and it certainly is not true today.
Julius Malema would not be talking about racism – both interpersonal and structural – if it was not still an extremely potent force in the lived realities of so many people. The best way to compete with the EFF is not to insinuate that EFF supporters are gullible anarchists who thirst for the blood of white people. Instead, the DA could actually show all of us that liberalism is more than capable of co-existing with the pursuit of justice and redress.
The sad thing is that the DA has a history of getting the political temperature right. For the majority of the 2010s, there was a noticeable shift within the Democratic Alliance. They had Mmusi Maimane. They had Phumzile van Damme. They had Mbali Ntuli. They had Makashule Gana, and many more leaders equipped, both in mind and in body, to expand what a liberal can do and say in South African politics.
That is not the DA we currently have.
The DA of 2023 has Helen Zille posting extremely homophobic and transphobic drivel without any disciplinary action whatsoever.
The DA of 2023 has John Steenhuisen target the third-biggest party in the country rather than campaign against an ANC that has zero credibility with the electorate.
The DA of 2023 has experienced a mass exodus of black leaders within the party, signalling a major problem with the way the Blue Brigade treats members who aren’t lily white.
The DA of 2023 has gotten into bed with Afrikaner nationalists and xenophobic zealots as part of a Multi-Party Coalition that obscures the fact that the DA, despite having all the political advantage in the world, simply cannot get the ANC below 50% on its own.
In short, the DA of 2023 is a political party that would rather stagnate into political communication best suited for the early 2000s, rather than adapt to the national moment and evolve as a centre-left party that can compete with new parties that seem to have a more organic bond with the black middle-class.
We are no longer living in an era where Rainbow Nation liberalism is a viable political product for most South Africans. We want political parties to point out the original sin of our country, and to create policies that target the freedom of black South Africans from hunger, poverty, and hopelessness.
That’s why if the DA is going to answer the EFF’s critique of constitutionalism with platitudes about forgiveness and reconciliation straight from the Tutu and Mandela playbook, then the EFF is going to easily win the ideological debate.
And in such a situation, the DA will have nobody to blame but itself for being nostalgic for an imagined past rather than getting their hands dirty to create the society in which all South Africans deserve to live. DM