DA’s eThekwini mayoral candidate is out of touch

IT SEEMS Mr Haniff Hoosen woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and decided he was South Africa's new moral compass.

- NKOSENHLE MADLALA

Unfortunately, much like his party, the Democratic Alliance's (DA) understanding of transformation, the compass seems permanently stuck pointing in the wrong direction. While he attempts to cast himself and his party as paragons of clean governance, his deafening silence on the deep-seated prejudices within his own organisation exposes his hypocrisy. Mr Hoosen has never raised his voice against racism within his party or community.

He was among those who defended the infamous Phoenix posters that glorified perpetrators of the Phoenix Massacre as heroes. Where was his moral outrage when Helen Zille referred to the people of the Eastern Cape as "refugees" or when she lauded colonialism, the very system that dehumanised black South Africans?

Yes, the City of Cape Town may boast unqualified audits, but to hold that up as the pinnacle of good governance while vast communities on the Cape Flats remain trapped in poverty, neglect, and exclusion is disingenuous. Separate development is alive and well in the DA's so-called land of milk and honey.