Helen Zille, the dissident who surprisingly has sent the DA leader packing, had some snide comments for some of her political foes taking what she believes to be a morbid interest in the bloodletting currently taking place in her party.
“Amusing to see the DA’s strongest ideological opponents, who never gave a fig and would never vote for us, writing heart-wrenching analyses about the terrible setback for the DA and for ‘non-racialism’,” she tweeted.
It was a dig at Thabo Mbeki, among others, who had attributed Mmusi Maimane’s resignation to what he called “a hegemonic ascendancy of a racist tendency which seeks to assert policies to that end, thus to sustain colonial and apartheid social relations”. It was typical Mbeki — verbose with a dose of racial sloganeering thrown in.
He urged the party to act in a way that would help transform the country into a truly nonracial society.
Zille further tweeted: “Of the 6 people who resigned, 4 are white”. It was an interesting comment coming from a party that doesn’t “see” colour. She should learn to bite her tongue sometimes, especially now that she’s back in the saddle. It’s always advisable to be magnanimous in victory.
Her public spat with Herman Mashaba, a day after she had promised to stay in her lane, came across as mean-spirited. Such an attitude could alienate potential supporters.
The widespread reaction to Maimane’s demise — from friends and foes alike — was a surprise. Some of the comments were self-serving, of course, but most were genuinely felt. The DA should not sniff or sneer at them.
They should welcome such an inquisition. It means people have an interest, if not a stake, in the goings-on in your party. They’re paying attention; they aren’t giving you the cold shoulder. There's nothing worse than being ignored.
But the interest in the DA is also spurred on by the realisation that Cyril Ramaphosa, the messiah we were promised after the elections, is nothing but a dud. The new dawn has turned out to be a mirage.
Instead of grabbing the moment by the scruff of the neck and bringing about necessary changes, he’s allowed things to drift from bad to worse.
The momentum has been lost and that’s dispiriting to the few willing horses around him.
For instance, Tito Mboweni during his mini-budget speech this week was almost straining at the leash to drive home a few home truths to his own comrades but was obviously reluctant to wander into virgin territory.
The previous day Pravin Gordhan had released a plan to save Eskom. But he shied away from dealing with the elephant in the room.
Zille’s careless comments about colonialism alienated many voters and forced them to look anew at Ramaphosa’s entreaties
Slashing Eskom’s bloated workforce and recovering the millions owed to the parastatal by municipalities would go a long way to stabilising its finances. But there’s no political will to tackle these hot potatoes.
Ramaphosa won’t grasp the nettle. He seems to have given the unions the right to veto government decisions. On this showing, the ANC is incapable of solving the mess it’s created.
In fact, as Karl Marx said about capitalism, it now contains the seeds of its own destruction. And the sooner that happens, the better. It’s become a rabble that can’t govern.
It is therefore unfortunate that the opposition is not only failing to take advantage of the ruling party’s difficulties, but is itself seemingly bent on committing harakiri.
As the leader, Maimane should take the lion’s share of the blame for the crisis. The buck stops with him. But the shambles has many more fingerprints.
Zille’s careless comments about colonialism alienated many voters and forced them to look anew at Ramaphosa’s entreaties. And the way the party dealt with the matter only helped to confirm some dark suspicions that Maimane was nothing but a pawn in the hands of a so-called white cabal, especially when compared with the vigour with which Patricia de Lille was pursued.
Ultimately, Maimane was the author of his own downfall. He was meticulous in choosing his assassins.
Tony Leon and Ryan Coetzee are not disinterested or impartial observers on matters to do with the DA. The party as it stands is their handiwork, their baby.
The two were the masterminds of the so-called fight back campaign which ultimately pushed the rump of the National Party over the cliff and sent its leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, scampering into the grateful arms of the ANC.
The DA then gobbled up its supporters and those from other right-wing parties. The DA grew as a result but the influx changed its accent. Because of the bitter taste it left in the mouths of many black voters, it meant that the party’s potential for growth was always going to be limited. And, of course, opponents never tired of harping on the fact.
Maimane’s attempt to reverse the trend — and the perception — failed. White voters fled the nest, and black voters didn’t bite. But by asking Leon and Coetzee to assess the DA’s poor performance in the elections, Maimane in effect tossed a dagger to the two men whose legacy he was trying to dismantle.
They grasped it with glee, plunged it in his solar plexus and twisted it. Maybe Maimane had to go, but nobody could have foreseen that his departure would be by his own hand.
We now have a ruling party with an entirely black leadership and which has made no attempt to involve or promote other races despite mouthing nonracial shibboleths. It would therefore be a pity if we would then have an all-white opposition leadership staring at it across the aisle.
It would not augur well for the country’s future; and would frankly be an unconscionable eventuality 25 years after what we thought was a new dawn.
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