DA defection teaches lesson

In what must surely rank as one of the strangest of defections in South African politics yet, former DA MP Liam Jacobs crossed the floor to Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance (PA) this weekend.

This, just after they had clashed in the department’s parliamentary portfolio committee a few days previously. That clash had resulted in the minister saying Jacobs had been “weaponised” against him and his party.

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Just a tool used by the DA

Besides calling the 24-year-old MP disrespectful, he intimated he was just a tool used by the DA in their fight for the Western Cape and had his questions written down for him.

But over the weekend, Jacobs was seen dancing joyfully because he had come “home” to McKenzie’s PA. Only Floyd Shivambu’s defection from the EFF to his erstwhile enemy’s Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party rivals that in weirdness.

But something else is at play here. Identity politics. DA federal chair Helen Zille has always been quick to accuse the PA and MK of using identity politics to grow their parties and amass votes, something she says she has fought against by trying hard to diversify the DA’s voter base.

DA is largely coloured-supported

Jacob’s defection to the largely coloured-backed PA is surely going to be viewed by Zille and others as identity politics at play.

In their spat, McKenzie had pointed out to Jacobs the DA was a largely coloured-supported party but had not produced a single minister of coloured descent in the government of national unity.

There is nothing wrong with groupings of people coming together to campaign for issues: women do that, black people do that, Jews do it, Afrikaners do it, in fact, almost every group of people do it.

But in South Africa, this must come with a caveat: campaigning for issues as a group must not be done to exclude other groupings. If the sole reason for a group to resort to identity politics is to exclude others, then identity politics are taking this country back to 1948.

If the Afrikaans-language-based Wanatu e-hailing company serves an Afrikaans-speaking person in Eldorado Park as well as it does a person in Waterkloof, then using identity politics in that sense serves that grouping positively without being exclusionary.

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Jacobs is coming home

Similarly, if Jacobs is coming “home” to the PA simply because of its association with its coloured identity, but not because the PA is fighting for equal representation for coloured people, then Zille will feel vindicated in her claims.

But it is not as though identity politics do not underpin the DA’s existence: in a big way, they do. The DA started out with an initial voter base that was a group that wanted to protect its privileges and possessions earned before the country’s transition to democracy.

Although their diversification project has worked somewhat, McKenzie is correct to point out that representation matters if the party’s voter base is taken into consideration.

Burden on all political role players

Jacobs’ defection to the PA should serve as a reminder that South Africa’s history places a burden on all political role players to not weaponise their identity as a group to exclude others from meaningful participation in public and economic life.

Whenever racial or ethnic identity comes up in SA’s politics, it must be with a view to aiding social and economic cohesion by ensuring balanced representation.

Our sports teams have demonstrated that, if representation is done right and not for exclusionary reasons, excellence is the outcome. That kind of representation needs to happen in business and politics, too.

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