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.

- Sydney Majoko

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.

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.