Identity politics poisons South Africa's future

8 October 2021

The DA has taken down its racially polarising posters in Durban, placed blame on a minor functionary for putting them up, and pretended to be sorry about its mistake.

But the posters have already done their job reinforcing the party’s position as a laager for minorities to save them from being swamped… the modern day version of the paintings of the Battle of Blood River that were a centrepiece of colonial and apartheid propaganda symbolising white supremacy.

Reinforcing demographic faultlines in South Africa may translate to short-term electoral gains – as they have done for the DA in Cape Town in the past – but identity politics don’t improve citizens’ quality of life, while threatening the country’s longer-term cohesiveness and sustainability.

The overwhelming majority of Durban residents are not racists, looters or vigilantes.

Good citizens, who believe in justice and the rights enshrined in our Constitution, don’t support looting or vigilantism. The DA knows this. But it also knows that many South Africans, rightfully, feel insecure about the country’s progress under the ANC. It is these insecurities that the DA seeks to exploit through identity politics.

South African society is among the most unequal on earth, with inequalities closely mirroring the racial divisions of the past.

These divisions – the social, economic, spatial and environmental injustices we inherited – will reverberate until they are addressed.

The only route to long-term security and sustainability is through fixing our inherited injustices. Reinforcing divisions is like putting our heads in the sand.

Statement by Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General, 8 October 2021