Hubris. It's as self-satisfying as it is shameful.
The Greeks remind us of Icarus. This young man, with his artisan father, attempts to escape Crete with a pair of wings; feathers wedded with wax. But his father, Daedalus, warns young Iscarus not to become too complacent, lest the sea dampens the wax and his wings clog. On the other hand, he should not suffer the folly of hubris, for fear that the sun might melt the wax. A Greek tragedy, the young Iscarus ignores his father's advice, suffers hubris and falls into the sea.
Such is the Democratic Alliance's, Ambassador Douglas Gibson, who must have gulped a mouthful of morning hubris when he wrote his opinion piece. Not surprisingly, it was first published in the Beeld.
Why hubris? Before getting into the details of the "rent-a-crowd", it might be interesting to take a step back and look at the role that the DA played in the Western Cape. Hubris usually does that to one: make one so proud and boastful that you tend to remember only your interpretation of history.
Gibson played an integral role in the 1999 "Fight Back" Campaign of then Democratic Party. In his piece, Gibson chooses to refer to "Africans" (in the racial sense) as "Black" rather than the other way round. In other words, whilst one would assume that he uses the term "African" (in the continental sense i.e. everyone living or from the continent), he dismisses the understanding of "Black" in the Black Consciousness sense (excluding Coloureds and Indians). This is all important because it points out that when the DP/DA, and Gibson in particular, refers to African people they do so as "Black people". "Fight B[l]ack" then becomes explicit.
This Fight B[l]ack campaign was the ground work for what was to come. The DP then amalgamated with the New National Party and, significantly, Coloured nationalists like Gerald Morkel and Pieter Marias were given prime places. Premier and Mayor, then Mayor and Premier; after a while the voters of the Western Cape could hardly keep up. DA democracy for you.
The Fight B[l]ack campaign in 1999 took its cue from and built on the then National Party's 1994 election tactics of swart gevaar. In that first democratic elections, the NP had deliberately run a swart gevaar campaign by, among others, distributing a little booklet to specifically Coloured communities in the Western Cape. Not mentioning the usage of the dop-system in that election would also be a grave omission. Why else would people vote Hernus Kriel in as the first Premier? Democracy for sure, as Gibson would argue, but certainly a democracy based on fear.
1994, 1999 then 2000, when some members of the NNP left the DA, the verkramptes opted to stay while the verligtes opted to join the ANC and other progressive parties. The renaming today of Table Bay Boulevard, after F.W. de Klerk, by the DA must be seen in this light. A pay-off to Theuns Botha et ali while the English liberals, working with people like Dave Steward, and the Coloured nationalists, like Ivan Meyer, continue to rule the roost. Why no Chief Albert Luthuli Boulevard? Or Archbishop Desmond Tutu Boulevard? In fact, now we know why we have a Nelson Mandela Boulevard. The idea was born in DA Marias's time.
All of this is important because it illustrates the realignment of politics, in the Western Cape, based on race (minority races) and fear. Fight B[l]ack laid the foundation of the philosophy that instilled in the minds of Whites, both Afrikaner and English, but more importantly Coloureds that the Western Cape, a province with a unique past and present, was to be a place where Blacks, in the Gibson understanding, were meant and were going to be kept out.
Calling people "refugees", in fact calling African people "refugees", is the continuation of this narrative. Teaming up with the DA's silence on the matter, the Freedom Front Plus called for more autonomy for the Western Cape during the 2014 election campaign. Not more autonomy for provinces, no, more autonomy for the Western Cape.
One can hear the liberals, in the Gibson-mold, and the verkramptes, like Bredel saying: "why harp on race? Gosh, we have Black friends!" Yet the reality is that the DA did not win the Western Cape based on a "clean", never mind "good", governance ticket. Gibson attempts to argue this as the reason for the voters' choice. What record of "clean" governance did it have when elected to the City of Cape Town administration in 2006? How can 3 years of running the City possibly be the ticket on which to run a "clean" governance election campaign in 2009? The DA ran and continue to run their campaigns based on fear.
In fact, clear election results show no drastic increase in the DA's support in the Western Cape. In 2009, the DA gained nearly 52% of the provincial vote while the Independent Democrats gained 5%. Between then and the DA's 2014 result of 59%, the two parties merged. Hence, for us not suffering hubris, we could suggest that the DA's growth was a mere 2%; matching the ANC's growth in the same period.
How better to tilt the scales in one's favour and against the ANC than to spread a rumour a couple of weeks before an election in the Western Cape that millions of Coloureds will lose their jobs because of affirmative action? Affirmative action always features in a DA election campaign. Racism is based on fear and the DA manipulates race like no other party does. Why else is the party so desperate for an African leader(s)? To show them off to the rest of the country, and African people in particular, saying: "look, African people vote DA too, you know!"
It comes therefore as no surprise that in the eyes of Gibson and the DA, suffering from their huge amount of hubris, the nearly 80 000 people who attended the ANC's 103rd birthday celebration and the many across the province, stranded with no transport, are nothing more than "rent-a-crowd".
His condescending tone on President Zuma and mentioning of celebrations indicates his myopic view of African people. May African people not drink expensive liquor? One supposes, with Gibson's thinking, you will only find ANC members staying in 5 star hotels. No DA supporters stay there, go to "elite" restaurants, nights clubs etc. Gibson must have had a long night checking out all the ANC people in these places. Don't worry Rhoda Kadalie will come to your rescue, she hangs out in these spaces too.
President Zuma and the ANC in general are right when they suggest that the Western Cape needs to be liberated. When the ANC governed the province it ensured that all the people who lived here and sought to live here felt at home. But something has gone terribly wrong. As indicated and starting with the NP in 1994, the DA has just been able to consolidate the fears of minorities. The Western Cape, as the place which hosts a national minority as a majority, is inevitably fertile ground for fear politics based on race. It is therefore no coincidence that our province has seen the worst kinds of racist attacks, especially by younger perpetrators against older victims, in recent months.
Not taking the liberty of speaking for President Zuma, it is safe to suggest that he never questioned democracy in the Western Cape. He might have been questioning how race and fear is used in this democracy; and used in particular by those who govern the province today. No doubt, they govern and think with hubris.
For if this were not the case, then we would never have seen the kind of treatment meted out on the people of South Road and the illegal demolishing of their homes. So much for "rule-of-law" in the City of Cape Town. People in Camps Bay, Noordhoek, Wynberg, Heideveld, Bellville, Grassy Park are all speaking up about a City and Provincial administration so consumed by their hubris that they disregard their core constituency.
Africans in the rest of South Africa see how the DA City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Provincial Government treat Africans living in the city and the province. Yet boldly and with great hubris, Helen Zille and the DA declares: "we administer the best run City and Province". For these and other reasons, the DA will never govern South Africa.
Chinua Achebe in his famous book, Things Fall Apart, a tragedy based on hubris, writes how an old, tired but scorned father, Unoka, warns his son, Okonkwo, to be careful of hubris. Hated by his son, Unoka's words might be apt for the DA and Gibson in particular:
"Do not despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and proud heart. A proud heart can survive a great failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone."
The DA is failing; it is falling into the sea.
Wesley Seale has a Masters in Governance from the University of Sussex. He coordinates the ANC's Research and Policy Development in the Western Cape. He writes in his personal capacity.
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