John Steenhuisen will be the DA’s poster boy for the 2024 elections after securing a second term as leader at its Federal Congress. [Picture: @Our_DA/Twitter]
The outcome of the Democratic Alliance’s Federal Congress has reignited the debate on race and transformation within the party. South Africa’s main opposition party elected its new top brass at Midrand, north of Johannesburg, over the weekend.
Reacting to the notion held by some within the party that race was not a measure for disadvantage, political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said this was based on an incorrect understanding.
“What the DA’s problem is that it looks at [a] few black people who have managed to get out of the conditions of poverty and then use those people. The majority of South Africans are mired in the condition of poverty,” he protested.
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Proxy for disadvantage
Seepe said it was not an “unreasonable” suggestion that race was a proxy for war. He said it was more likely than not that one could find a black person from a poor background.
“If you are going to have a number of black people coming into your space, you should come to a realisation that … most of them will come from poor families. The issue of disadvantage, race is still a proxy for disadvantage.”
He added that the biggest mistake the DA made before – and continues to make – was to not understand the ripple effects of the apartheid system. He said, “It affected black people whether you are middle class or not. White people benefited from that system, whether they were poor whites or rich whites.”
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Reconsolidation
Meanwhile, Dr Zamokuhle Mbandlwa, a lecturer at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), posited that the outcome of the Federal Congress was an indication of the party attempting to reconsolidate its support base ahead of the 2024 elections.
John Steenhuisen’s reelection was an “overwhelming mandate”, as party officials put it. Out of ten newly-elected leaders, only one representative of the black demographic – Solly Malatsi – made the cut.
“The Democratic Alliance lost support. Many people did not vote for the DA [in 2019, 2021] and we have seen an increase in Freedom Front Plus membership and support in elections. The majority of DA supporters are people who are not necessarily lower class people, they are upper class people.”
Mbandlwa suggested the swell in numbers for DA rival FF+, with which it has worked in coalition arrangements at a local level, may have prompted delegates at the Federal Congress to sideline Mpho Phalatse in favour of Steenhuisen. He said the party had alienated its traditional base when it elected Mmusi Maimane as leader in 2015.
It then paid the price at the polls and learnt a lesson. This was now about reconsolidating its support base, he said.
