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Let’s hope the DA will evolve
The lessons learned from the exodus of men and women like Herman Mashaba, Mazibuko and Maimane will not be in vain.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen inspects Hursthill substation in Johannesburg, 15 June 2021, which supplies power to Coronationville and Brixton which is poorly mantained by City Power. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
The winds of change have blown and the ANC is left wondering, having lost Gauteng to coalition politics.
Gauteng’s two biggest metros have newly elected faces of colour under the leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA).
The consensus among political parties was that anything, or anyone, was better than the ANC.
This time around, we wait with bated breath for the DA to better its own score sheet.
We, people of colour, have come to understand the DA as a party of colour. Behind the smokescreen, I have seen that the DA represents none of the dreams that were sold to me.
Black people were nothing to the party but a number that would edge them closer to power.
Those that used skin colour to advance their political agenda, using our dream as young black South Africans for equality for all in the eyes of all, are covert racists.
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They are too moderate to shout Broederbond but brave enough to exclaim that economic power placed in the hands of the majority would be the sunset on any future for South Africa.
They call it corruption. But if you and I both listen carefully, they are saying that, as black people, we are incapable of being leaders of industry.
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And also listen carefully to what they do not say. There are racist tendencies in the party. I celebrate the milestone of the City of Joburg having its first female mayor but very quickly remember the story of Mmusi Maimane and Lindiwe Mazibuko.
I want to believe that the DA will re-evaluate its stance towards people outside of their comfort zones.
That the lessons learned from the exodus of men and women like Herman Mashaba, Mazibuko and Maimane will not be in vain.
Because if ever there should be an alternative to the party that has failed us from 1994, we owe it to ourselves to be honest about the teething problems –so that we do not grow with them, accepting them as the norm which rots into maturity.
