To say the least the recent media hype about the ascendancy of Mmusi Maimane to the leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in South Africa may be exactly what is and seems in the media, a media hype.
This is by no means to detract from the political or integral credentials of the brother, let alone his democratic inclinations or his commitment to ensure prosperity for the thousands of the wretched in South Africa. This is not also to ignore the gains that the DA may have obtained during the last general elections, about six percent of the total vote, to become a party of note on the opposition benches and on South Africa’s political landscape. But surely South Africans needs more than just a party with mere democratic inclinations and pretences as the DA may seem to be or seems to have been. Even in the Western Cape itself where it has retained power, in terms of transformation and the practical uplifment of the masses, the DA has seemed no more else than just another elitist party.
Despite increasingly enjoying the support of many black South Africans as of recent, and more recently with the news of the candidature of Maimane when such support in terms of the polls shot to eight percent from the initial six percent, a support it may wish to further bolster now that Maimane is at the helm of the party, the DA essentially remains a white party. To give brother Maimane the benefit of the doubt, perhaps its whiteness may eventually, now that it has black brother at the helm, if indeed it is more than just tokenism, eventually fade away.
As much as socio-economic conditions in South Africa have not changed much under the ANC government since the emergence of democratic non-racialism in 1994, in the eyes of most previously and still disadvantaged and marginalised South Africans, the Africans or blacks so to speak, one would have to see anything bigger or real to seriously inflicts grievous body dents on the ANC and its rank and file, let alone its liberation credentials. Anything bigger to the extent of disheartening and disillusioning the ANC in the eyes of most South Africans, especially the wretched, and thus rendering it to lose its grip on political power. Thus, truly speaking, Maimane and company have to have their work cut out to become a real force, far more than they currently seem on the South African geopolitics. Because democratic ideals aside, real or imagined, in terms of real and radical transformation, there is little that the party can offer to the masses in South Africa, except to the black elite, to erase the liberation credentials of the ANC in the psyche of many, as much as many are still downtrodden.
In a nutshell the DA policies are rooted in capitalism and the status quo to be of any dire consequence in terms of a radical transformation that most South Africans are currently craving for. As far as these masses are concerned, better the devil they know with its liberation credentials, which is the ANC, rather than one that they do not know, simply because it may now have a black frontliner, but which inherently remains white, and anti-working class. Further the South African demographics also for now, which predominantly remains black and impoverished, is far from inclined if only changing political lanes if not homes.
Perhaps, if one talks about Economic Freedom Forum (EFF), than one can see a real alternative to the ANC but all the same even the EFF’s own ideological posturing, which seems transient, for that matter more rhetorical rather than convictional based on ideology, has remained suspect.
But on balance the EFF has seemed the better and real challenge to the ANC than the DA, the latter’s avowed strong political machinery notwithstanding. Perhaps while the EFF’s ideology has seemed as transient as it has been, more than anything it is their unorthodox politicking more than anything else that have been making them seem formidable politically. But the question begs as to how long, in the absence of some deep-seated ideology, rather than the pampering to the emotions of the masses, exploiting their pitiful socio-economic conditions, they shall continue to be of any consequence merely by their unorthodox political theatrics?