DEAR Editor,-
It would certainly be negligent to not respond to the comments of the DA constituency chairperson (SCH 11/09/14).
Bragging a proud track record of being in opposition since 1998 and consumed by an ideological difference from the African National Congress (ANC), Cllr Doug Rawlins ventures to proffer patronising advice to a party that has been in government for over two decades.
This opposition leader needs to be alerted to the reality that, in its 20th year in government, the ANC won with a sterling victory of 62 percent. A Google search will categorise the ANC’s victory as a rare achievement in a modern, multi-party democracy.
Such a seal of approval can only redound to the commitment, track record and the confidence that the people have and share with the party. The ANC remains the only party with a genuine legitimacy and real substance to keep South Africans together.
Notwithstanding his banal criticisms of the ANC and its president, which have become threadbare through multiple recycling, the party has become paranoid in its carping of government.
This nauseous whingeing is a deliberate attempt at creating a smokescreen to deflect the attention from its internal party conflicts.
The DA will be well advised to take lessons from the ANC on constituency and people management. Drawing on these lessons, it will be able to keep citizens from different races together. Essentially, it must accept dissenting views and accommodate competitive leadership contests.
Unceremoniously shipping out of the country emerging and independent voices like Lindiwe Mazibuko or dispatching blossoming youth Mbali Ntuli to a remote rural village will not solve the party’s woes.
On the international front, it must internalise the reality that the country’s survival depends on its interaction with Africa and Asia. There is an obligation for the DA to become Afro-centric in its thinking and more importantly, reduce its dependence on its imperial masters. Taking a moral stance on the Palestinian crisis is critical – its silence on the decimation in Gaza is deafening.
On the home front, it will have to adopt a more progressive view to the question of land reform and redistribution. Giving up its status of being the vanguard of distortion in landownership and monopoly capitalism is slow in the offing.
The foregoing represents the objective issues that await the party’s urgent and critical attention. In the interim, Doug Rawlins, the leader of the opposition, is well advised to engage in genuine introspection and leave the ANC to the people.
CLLR RONNIE NAIR
HCM Speaker
