How the DA aims to take the Union Buildings in 2029

THE Democratic Alliance is a sly fox.

- LANCE WITTEN

AS THE DA positions itself as a 'non-racial party', it cunningly leverages historical racial tensions to advance its agenda, raising critical questions about the future of South Africa's political landscape, says the writer. | IOL

While positing itself as a “nonracial party’, it seems hellbent on reminding everyone about how important race is, while preying on the subconscious racism every member of our fractured society harbours.

The apartheid government in those dark years of oppression sowed the fear of the swart-gevaar (the Black danger), and the DA has subtly and subliminally been playing that card for years.

Why else would it be pushing for the scrapping of B-BBEE, pushing an agenda of meritocracy over existing laws that seek to address the gross imbalance of power, land ownership and wealth?

You see, for many South Africans, white is still right. It may not come out in polite conversations or in public fora, but around the braai, after a few brannes-and-coke, or in the seemingly “private” WhatsApp chats, and certainly all over social media, racism festers and broods like soul-sucking bacteria in a cesspool. What the apartheid government excelled at was getting us to engage in othering. They're not like us. Those people don’t work hard. Those people are lazy. Those people are corrupt. Those people do nothing but enrich themselves. Those people have systems of patronage they need to protect.

The reality is we all do. And we do it to each other. What the apartheid government was also exceedingly successful at was ingraining in us the belief that certain races were “better” than others.