The Incredible Whiteness of Being (the DA)

So, it’s election week. On Wednesday 8 May 2019, we will all go out and vote to decide who will govern South Africa for the next five years. It is no secret that the Zuma-led ANC crippled the country and yet it is almost certain that the ANC will win the 2019 election and that its proportion of the national vote will increase from 2014. Even conservative publications such as The Economist describe Cyril Ramaphosa as “South Africa’s best bet”.

To quote it further:

“The Economist endorsed the DA in 2014. But this time, with deep reservations, we would cast our national vote, at the national level, for the ANC. Our reasons are painfully pragmatic. The DA has the right ideas for fixing South Africa, but it is in no position to implement them. It is still seen as the party of those who are white, Indian or coloured.”

I wonder why that is?

The DA is the largest opposition party and the most credible threat to the ANC, yet it will have to get significantly more than 22% of the vote (compared with the ANC’s 62%) to do so.

Given that black South Africans make up 79% of the total population, winning a national election is possible only by convincing large numbers of black voters to vote for the DA.

Most South Africans still think race is a really important feature of South African society, something that’s understandable given that that’s what the apartheid government used to differentially legislate, allocate, reward and punish for half a century.

I was curious about the racial breakdown of the DA in Parliament (“do as I do, not as I say”). So I looked at the People’s Parliament website. It turns out that the current DA parliamentarians are 62% white and 67% male. The infographic below is telling.

Thinking that perhaps this was a legacy issue and that the DA has subsequently changed, I looked at the national parliamentary list that the DA has just put forward for the 2019 elections. It turns out that if the DA wins the same number of seats in the 2019 election as it did in the 2014 election (87 seats) then it will be “only” 59% white, hardly an improvement.

Comparing the above graph to the one below, you have to ask yourself, who is advising the DA? How are they still employed?

What kind of logic do you have to use to conclude that in a hyper-racialised country like South Africa it’s OK to have 59% of your representatives come from 9% of the population? And specifically, the group that systematically oppressed and benefited from apartheid. And somehow this is a winning strategy?

Of course, the DA response is usually “but we pick the best candidates for the job, irrespective of race”. How is this going to go down well with black South Africans? If anything, it is extremely offensive.

The implication is that there are no competent black people within the DA to lead it. It may well be the case that there are not enough black leaders in the DA, but the first place to start looking for answers is in the party itself.

How have strategic party officials and big funders of the DA not set out ultimatums around transformation — change or we’re out. How many times does one have to say this: You will never win a national election unless you can convince black South Africans that your policies and their implementation will benefit them, in particular, those who are poor, unhoused and unemployed.

I personally don’t think the DA will ever be able to make that case when two-thirds of their leadership is white.

It is not the DA alone that pays the price of its short-sightedness. South Africa as a whole suffers when we have such weak and shambolic opposition.

In three days thousands of voters are likely to “hold-their-noses-and-vote-Ramaphosa” knowing full well that one votes for a party and not an individual, fully cognisant that their vote will contribute to large numbers of murderous, corrupt and inept ANC politicians making it into Parliament as a result. Yet they will do it anyway. Not because they do not know that the DA exists, or what its policies are, or even its track record in the municipalities it governs. It is simply that they do not trust the DA.

Some do not trust that they will be able to lead us out of the political quagmire that we are in, seeing Ramaphosa and his appointees as the only way out. Others do not trust that the party really has their interests at heart. And who can blame them, when a party’s leaders are 62% white and 67% male. Shame on you, DA.

Get with the programme or be content to keep 20-something percent of the vote forever. DM