We may all be preoccupied with the race for the presidency of the ANC, but the volume and tone of the reaction to Helen Zille’s election as DA leader suggests an interest far beyond the party’s electoral base in the future of opposition politics.
Even President Thabo Mbeki has been conciliatory, inviting Tony Leon to the Union Buildings at long last and calling to congratulate Zille and to set up a meeting.
Zille’s campaign has been long in the making, which is one reason her DA critics have accused her of being divisive. But it was precisely in the battles between the party’s liberal, conservative and pragmatic camps that she laid the foundation for the broadly positive reaction to her election. She ensured very early in the piece that she was seen as the only credible candidate to reposition the party as a more broadly acceptable alternative to the ANC, rather than a home for disenchanted minority voters.
Indeed, the style of her challenge — during which she let it be understood that she was uncomfortable with the politics of “Fight Back” — combined with the decisiveness of her eventual victory, has already helped nudge perceptions of the party in a new direction.
All this, however, means that expectations are unrealistically high.
Zille will not deliver millions of black voters for the DA in the 2009 elections, and even in 2014, the party will still be disproportionately white. That need not mean she will be considered a failure, however. The party will count her a success if it wins the Western Cape in 2009 and the multiparty coalition holds on to Cape Town, but it is crucial for South Africa at large that she succeed in the less measurable task of laying a permanent foundation for a different DA.
The fact that she will run the party as Cape Town’s mayor, rather than as leader of the parliamentary opposition, is at once an opportunity and a risk. In Parliament the party is defined by its opposition to the ANC. That, almost as much as Leon’s personal style, has resulted in perceptions of its negativity.
From the mayor’s office, however, Zille can define her own terms, and attempt to build up a record of achievement, rather than complaint, that the electorate can respond to. The risk lies in the fact that Parliament remains the national stage, and she will need to carry along a DA caucus that is far from united behind her programme. For the party to remain robust in opposition while finding a fresh voice is a major challenge, and the ANC will exploit any lapses.
Internally, Zille faces the considerable challenge of opening space for credible black leadership to develop. The DA is allergic to affirmative action, but she needs to find a way to ensure that its institutional culture does not bar black advancement.
By the end of her tenure, she must be able to point to a line of succession that includes talented black candidates, and an electoral base that is expanding rather than tracking the demographic decline of the white population.
Democracy needs viable, non-racial alternatives, both in opposition and in government. If Zille succeeds even modestly, we will all be better off.
Khutsong: action is needed
As we head for the sixth week without schooling in Khutsong, the community’s religious leaders have urged President Thabo Mbeki to intervene to resolve the impasse. Perhaps they should have started at home by calling on pupils to reconsider their boycott strategy and find other ways of protesting against the township’s incorporation into North West. But over 18 months of disruption it has become painfully clear that the government’s attempt to portray the protests as the work of agitators led by communists with no backing cuts no ice. It is a classic rooi gevaar diversion; Khutsong has become a festering sore that refuses to go away.
In drawing up new provincial boundaries the Municipal Demarcation Board conducted hearings in 2005, and more than 80% of the interested parties made submissions calling for Merafong Municipality to remain in Gauteng. The demarcation board made recommendations to Local Government and Provincial Affairs Minister Sydney Mufamadi to that effect. In his wisdom, Mufamadi ignored them.
Throughout the turbulence, Mufamadi has failed to engage residents or their organisations, or to issue a single statement clarifying matters. He has passed the buck to North West Premier Edna Molewa, whose authority residents refuse to recognise. What is stopping national government from setting up channels of communication with the residents — mostly diehard ANC supporters — affected by the changes? Teachers complain that an unsympathetic North West education department failed to prepare them for last month’s formal handover, and has suspended four teachers accused of fomenting unrest. There are also allegations that an impoverished North West health department has stopped supplying certain medicines to local clinics.
The blame for the stalemate lies squarely at the door of Mufamadi, who has compounded his initial blunder by refusing to engage. A complete return to Gauteng may not be possible, but the government should at least be listening to the community and seeking compromise. In official circles, the overriding concern seems to be that to give in would be to encourage civil disobedience. It is the kragdagheid of South Africa’s apartheid masters, rather than the response of a democratically elected government.