The Democratic Alliance (DA) must return to liberal policies, campaign for them, and explain to everyone why they work so well.
The DA is now in some turmoil, with election losses, rows over race, accusations of poor leadership by Mmusi Maimane and, above all, confusion over policy and direction. Hermann Pretorius of the IRR has thrown his oar in, causing uproar. So what’s to be done?
The essential question for every political party is this: ‘What are we for?’ Simply to gain power – and provide high-paying jobs for family and friends? To implement good policies? To attack those in power? To campaign for ideals? Is it better to come to power without ideals and rule indifferently, or to remain in opposition and influence the country with high ideals and constructive policies?
The African National Congress (ANC) seems to be a party simply wedded to power and money, with its National Democratic Revolution, a mixture of communism and African Nationalism, as a vague default ideology. What is the DA?
It had its roots in pure liberalism under apartheid. With the ending of the Liberal Party, the Progressive Party became the sole official political voice of liberalism in South Africa. With one member only, Helen Suzman, and attracting the support only of a small, rich, white minority, it changed South African history, helped to expose and undermine apartheid, and laid before the whole land the shining ideals of liberalism: equal rights for all, equal opportunities, no discrimination by race, and liberty as the highest political good.
The DA is Helen Suzman’s heir. It began by continuing her liberal policies, but now has stayed from them, getting into a horrible tangle over race, and becoming ANC-lite. This is almost certainly why it is losing votes. More important, it is why it is losing integrity.
In the real world, we have to accept some unpleasant facts about how people vote. Where racial and religious differences are prominent, people vote for race and religion first, and for policies second – a distant second. (Class doesn’t seem to matter.) South Africa is no different, although we hope in future that racial differences will lessen. Given this fact, the best strategy for a party of principle is simply to campaign on the ideals upon which it was founded, and hope that the ideals eventually spread – as they did under Helen Suzman’s tiny Progressive Party.
The central liberal ideals are equal opportunities, promotion on merit and no discrimination by race (or sex). These ideals have proved over the whole world to be the best for advancing human welfare, especially for poor people. Countries that have adopted liberal policies have flourished; those that haven’t have stagnated. The racial policies of affirmative action, employment equity and black economic empowerment damage the economy, reduce growth, foster racial animosity and cause ruinous harm to poor black people. The DA has now adopted these policies, imitating the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). In doing so, it has lost its soul.
It is a shocking fact that the Freedom Front Plus, an heir to the National Party of apartheid, now has more liberal policies than the DA. This is because it rejects racial discrimination.
Everyone knows racial affirmative action and employment equity is a disaster. Education is the outstanding example. Under these racial policies, black teachers should be preferred for appointment because of their skin colour and 92% of teachers at every school should be black (because 92% of the population is black). This has ruined the education of poor black children, resulting in some of the lowest educational levels in the world. None of the ruling elite, including the leaders of the ANC, EFF and DA, would dream of choosing a school for their children where 92% of the teachers were black and chosen by affirmative action. They all choose schools where the teachers are appointed on merit and most of them are white. What they are saying to the black majority is this: ‘We want to inflict on you polices that we would be horrified to accept for ourselves.’
Mmusi Maimane seems a very decent man, presentable and articulate. He was stupid about the car from Steinhoff, and the Claremont house, but these are hardly capital crimes. What matters far more is the DA’s lack of policy clarity and principle under his leadership. This directionless dither and is what caused Gwen Ngwenya to leave. This might not be because of his own ideas but because of the influence of politically correct managers in the party, most of them white. If so, he is at fault for not standing up to them.
We know exactly what the best policies are for all the people of South Africa. They are liberal policies. The DA, which has abandoned them, must return to them and campaign for them and explain to everyone why they work so well. It must stop pandering to racial policies that have proved to be harmful and which do not attract voters – but, in fact, repel them.
Andrew Kenny is a writer, an engineer and a classical liberal.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the IRR.
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