Outgoing official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon bid farewell in his final internet column, SA Today, which since its launch in February 2003 has focused largely on the state of democracy, including critiques of the ruling African National Congress and its governance.
Leon, who on Sunday steps down as the party leader after 13 years of leadership, first of the Democratic Party and now the DA, noted that 71 columns had concerned governance, 17 columns had been devoted to the economy, 12 to neighbouring Zimbabwe and 10 to foreign policy issues excluding Zimbabwe, while just four were to crime, four to land reform, restitution and agriculture and two to education.
Acknowledging that the column had been styled on President Thabo Mbeki’s weekly newsletter — ANC Today — Leon said he did not know how accurate a barometer this breakdown provided of the state of South Africa and the issues concerning the South African nation, “but these are the topics that have moved me to speak to all of you for all these years”.
Leon, who will remain on as an MP, said an objective of the column had been to try to reinvigorate political debate in South Africa.
“This is because, in my opinion, we have far too little genuine discussion in which fundamental disagreements are aired in a frank, sustained and constructive fashion. Instead, we have far too much of what the Albanian writer, Ismail Kadari, describes as the ‘obligatory optimism of socialist society’.”
Much of the critique in the column had been focused “on the immovable object of race politics” — which he described as “a vexed topic that continues to dominate our national discourse as well as our lives. While I do not know whether we have shifted public perceptions or prejudices, we have at least tried to challenge some of its flakier nostrums.”
He said he thought one could be positive about the future in an open-eyed way, without being blinded to the real challenges that needed to be overcome.
“If there is one point I could reiterate for one last time, it is this. There is absolutely no contradiction between being several things at once: a good South African, a member of the opposition, a Liberal Democrat and a globalist. In the months and years to come, more and more of our men and women will discover the value and mutual benefit in each of these terms; together, they will bring South Africa to a much better place.
“It has been a wonderful journey along a difficult but rewarding road; the road continues, although I will not be there to propose these weekly signposts along the way. For now, as they say in the classics: it is goodbye to all that.”
South Africa’s new official opposition leader will be known by 11am on Sunday. Three candidates are vying to fill Leon’s shoes — Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille, federal chairperson Joe Seremane and Eastern Cape leader Athol Trollip. — I-Net Bridge