While the DA claims to be non-racial, racism remains a challenge for the official opposition party. It’s like a monkey on its back. The party is trying very hard to rid itself of this demon but it doesn’t want to go away.
In the last few months, the DA has been confronted by the race issue. Some of its members spewed racial bile against the black nation. The retired estate agent Penny Sparrow referred to blacks as ‘baboons’.
The self-same Sparrow later claimed to have black friends, a common but tired phrase that racists use.
These events caused a headache for the DA’s black leader, Mmusi Maimane, who is seen as a ‘rent-a-darkie’ leader. Maimane was elected leader in order to woo blacks into the party. But how is he going to do that if his white party members show disdain toward blacks? There are fewer blacks joining the official opposition since South Africa’s ‘Obama’ took the party reins.
Every time the race issue is raised, whites get irritated. Well, they don’t have a right to get irritated because they have never experienced racism in their lives. They don’t know what it feels like to be treated like a sub-human simply because you have a different skin colour. So they must just suppress their irritation.
But I digress. Does the official opposition party have a women’s empowerment programme? It doesn’t look like it. For instance, in all the metros, the DA’s mayoral candidates are males. Are there no capable female members within the party?
The DA’s Patricia de Lille is the mayor of Cape Town. Cape Town has its own dynamics, which are more or less the same as in other areas. But racism stinks in that area. Blacks are treated like dirt in that town. However, the point I want to make is that De Lille is the only female mayoral member of the official opposition.
Interestingly, the DA is among the first political parties in South Africa to have had a female leader, in the person of Helen Zille. However, part of Zille’s claim to fame is that she appointed an all-male cabinet during her first term as Cape Town mayor. She could have done better.
I understand the DA has a women’s wing or party. If it does have one, then it’s as good as dead. Who is the leader of the party’s women’s wing? I have never heard of her. I have also never heard of the DA’s women’s party responding to issues affecting their gender. This is a cause for concern.
As a liberal party, the DA is supposed to be progressive in terms of gender equity. It’s a shame that the official opposition is instead practising and promoting patriarchy in this day and age. The party should reconsider and do the right thing.
