It’s all about creating more wealth and growing the pie for all South Africans — over 80% of whom are black.
The reality, however, is that Maimane’s ANC-lite policies were at odds with the DA’s principles, which ultimately led his departure, compounded by his electoral failure notwithstanding, him vainly pandering to a voter segment he thought would add to the DA’s fortunes at the polls. This failed largely because many in this segment still buy into the racial fiction peddled by the ANC, despite their patent exasperation at their alienation by the same organisation.
As Peter Bruce wrote in the Sunday Times recently, “that’s all well and good, but to do politics you have to organise and win votes. Ask Helen Zille. It’s hard, hard graft. And it’s time to get off the pot.” What they really want is an ANC cleansed of corruption, and as such might want to join Ramaphosa in the pipe-dreams of his new dawn — if he’ll have them. The DA stance that irks them so vehemently is firmly based on nonracialism, and as Zille says “South Africans have a choice between an open, opportunity for all society and a closed, crony society for some”.