The Democratic Alliance leadership race is hotting up in the run-up to the May conference at which the party will choose a successor to Tony Leon. Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille has now announced her intention to stand, adding her candidacy to those of Eastern Cape leader Athol Trollip and national chairperson Joseph Seremane. The Mail & Guardian explores the views of the three candidates on a range of policy issues.
What do you see as South Africa’s top three challenges as a developing democracy?
Seremane: To normalise our society, we should fight the maladies of our democracy like crime, which destabilises progress and prevents citizens from enjoying their rights. Education is also very important to change the mindsets of people. There must be a basic understanding moving forward of why we uphold values like human rights and non-racialism. And then mens sana in corpore sano, a healthy mind in a healthy body. Health. Health. Health.
Trollip: Democracy needs to be constantly defended. The scales of democracy are not balanced in South Africa. If you perform, you should be rewarded and if you do not perform, you should be ousted. The governing party governs with impunity whether it delivers or not.
We’ve replaced a minority white nationalist government with a majority black nationalist government. Nationalism brings out the worst in nations — look at Bosnia-Herzegovina. We must be careful that we do not become what we have opposed.
Zille: First, we have poor, and declining, education for the majority of young people. Excellent education is the cornerstone of a successful democracy that offers a fair opportunity to all citizens. Second, where people live in fear of crime and where criminals stand a good chance of evading justice, one cannot build a nation on the basis of the rule of law.
Third, we cannot develop as a democratic nation if we continue to judge people by the colour of their skin rather than the content of their character.
Will a free market economic strategy combat South Africa’s high unemployment?
Seremane: How free should free be? Free market does not necessarily mean laissez-faire. You need some regulation through interaction and discussion with all parties, to see how they adjust to it.
One might say capitalism is bad, another that out of profits you can do things. But it must have a human soul; how do we arrive at that? How do we keep it to the benefit of the broader society? The state can use loans and tax rebates, for example, as long as it is useful for the common good.
Trollip: I believe absolutely that free market policies will do so. We have lost too many labour-intensive companies in textiles that have chosen to go to other countries, like Botswana, because our labour policies are too sophisticated for a developing country. As a developing country we need to create an environment to attract investment. Our sophisticated labour policies are driving investment into neighbouring countries. South Africa is missing many opportunities in the global economy.
Zille: Government policy must make it easier to create and get jobs. This requires strong confidence in the country’s future, both locally and internationally, and a climate that encourages investment. We must look honestly at the factors that impede job creation and undermine confidence, particularly poor education, crime and race obsession, and deal with those. If we get this diagnosis wrong, we are likely to apply the wrong remedy, such as increasing state control and intervention. Our state has such limited capacity that further inept intervention is likely to exacerbate problems.
How have you worked to advance non-racialism, and what will you do as DA leader to make it a more inclusive party?
Seremane: There are so many examples. When I was in the South African Council of Churches, I was in the justice and reconciliation department and the development department. Sometimes white hobos would come and ask for assistance, and some would say, don’t help them. But they were human beings. Most were indoctrinated that there is no good in any black man, but I worked with them and helped them and they responded, asking how they could get involved.
In the DA, I would like to take people to see the fearful townships. We are already doing this, but many more must see. There is good and bad on both sides. This is not your land and my land alone.
Trollip: I grew up on the back of a black woman. I am often asked where I learned to speak an indigenous language: I never learned to speak it, I suckled a black South African language. When I was young, I hunted small animals, I grew up in an initiation hut. I had the most privileged upbringing in understanding an indigenous African philosophy.
I’ve just transferred that experience into my life as a farmer and leader of a political party in my province. We have nearly 30% of DA representatives in the Eastern Cape region who are not white, when only 2% of the vote came from black communities. We have transformed our party.
Zille: Non-racialism begins at home. Since I moved to Cape Town in 1979 I have never lived in a segregated suburb. I have always sent my children to state schools. I also did what I could — where I was, with what I had — to join the struggle against apartheid, primarily through the Black Sash and other NGOs. I have consistently opposed racial nationalism in all its forms, and continue to do so now.
If I am leader of the DA, I will seek to diversify the face of leadership and ensure that all feel welcome and comfortable in our ranks. Breaking the shackles of race will be a long process, and will not happen overnight.
Will the DA’s position on affirmative action further alienate black voters?
Seremane: Affirm as much as you can affirm those who have been disadvantaged, but we must not discriminate. The lines that we draw between black and white makes it as if we are talking about some who are citizens and some who are not. All belong as citizens; we have to move on. The whole question of mentorship should be considered. Those who are skilled can act as mentors for those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds. There are various initiatives that will not leave people feeling alienated and marginalised, but also help people who are disadvantaged. This must be underpinned by a strong economy that gives people opportunities.
Trollip: It might, to be quite frank, alienate the DA from the community that it has set targets to grow in.
But nearly 50Â 000 South African graduates of all colours are at home — unemployed, tertiary graduates educated by candlelight in the most unbelievable circumstances of sacrifice. We also have a civil service that is underperforming because there are huge vacancies. Affirmative action is ultimately responsible for that.
What I believe we should be doing is that where we have a vacancy of critical skills, the priority should be to fill it with South African skills, regardless of colour or creed or affiliation to any political party.
Zille: The DA says that affirmative action, as practised by the ANC, has merely become an excuse for offering jobs and contracts to the politically connected few. ANC-style BEE has degenerated into elite enrichment rather than genuine empowerment. We strongly believe in a different approach to empowerment — increasing opportunities and building skills. In less than a year, in the City of Cape Town, we have shown that our alternative approach works better than the ANC’s. We scrapped quotas, opened the tender system, extended opportunities, eradicated corruption — and the number of contracts awarded to BEE companies went up 10%, from 40% to 50%.
Should the death penalty be reinstated?
Seremane: Currently we are debating it; it’s a good ideal but also a risky punitive action. Only when you have fair and equitable due process can you begin to debate the death penalty. Some people are talking about a referendum, maybe as a first step — but not a conclusive step. Hard labour is one suggestion before concluding ‘let’s hang themâ€. It also makes rehabilitation an attractive alternative.
Trollip: A referendum for the death penalty would probably be 96% successful. I believe in an eye for an eye — with one reservation. In my experience and reading, rich people do not get hanged and poor people do. The most heinous crimes are perpetrated by extremely poor people, but rich people who commit heinous crimes may be able to avoid it.
Zille: I am not a proponent of the death penalty. In the DA we have a free vote on this issue, based on individual conscience. We have no single policy position on this issue.