Political fronting in the DA: Mendacity and the death of faux liberalism

The last few weeks has seen the shortest political alliance in our young democracies history. Likened to a teenage infatuation, the DA-AGANG political agreement was over in less than the proverbial political week. Analysts have spent much time on the issue and have various views on its meaning and consequence. The roots of this DA own goal and Agang act of political suicide lie in the superficial way in which race is analysed and understood as a category in South African politics and the manner in which politicians who claim to be liberals approach the matter.

The DA has a deeply rooted, racist and racialist culture in the party. Mamphele Ramphele herself has an idealist position on the issue. This incident has exposed the hypocrisy of the DA, which says one thing, but does another. Race can only be dealt with through a real, qualitative and substantial political realignment of our country, not a fronting exercise.

It is not a realignment based on the names of parties and of individual leaders of political parties, but one based on the real, material transformation; political, social and economic, of our country. The DA has been caught lying to the South African people. It would be a mistake to characterize this episode as the death of liberalism, however. It is in fact the death of the myth of liberalism in the DA.

RW Johnson and other self proclaimed liberals have mourned the stupidity of the DA and Agang in the recent tragi-comedy as being the betrayers of liberalism. Johnson argues that by submitting to the dictates of the political market and searching for Black leaders, the DA is going against its "liberal" roots. This would be a valid criticism if it were true. But in reality, the DA is not a liberal party and never has been.

There are liberals in the DA, but there are also racists, neo-conservatives, neo-liberals and even some centre and right-wing social democrats. Helen Zille is certainly one of the more progressive members of her party. So her attempts to "find" Black leaders may well be genuine, but they reveal the limited understanding Zille and the DA have on the issue of race.

Similarly, Ramphele assumes that because she is Black, she will appeal to the majority of South African voters simply because they have a similar skin colour to her, even thought she has nothing to offer them in terms of policies and programs.

Race is not a genetic or physical category. It is a social category. There are no "Black" people, "White" people, "Coloured" people or "Indians" in reality. These categories were constructed under the colonial, imperial, capitalist and apartheid conquest and oppression of the majority of South Africans. As such, these labels have a social meaning and relevance, but also a political and economic one, constructed in these encounters.

Racial classification, as decreed by the apartheid regime, determined where a South African stood in terms of freedom, self-determination, class, wealth, poverty, and how she or he experienced crime, violence, hunger, happiness and many other things. These catergorisations shaped how we walk, talk, eat and drink and where worked, played, worshipped, rested and slept.

The DA repeatedly argues that these social categories are outdated and that race does not matter anymore. Attempts by the DA to "find" Black leaders and promote them as leaders are therefor bizarre, even quite delusional. Coming from a party that is opposed to affirmative action and BEE, this activity of finding Blacks to front for its conservative program, is hypocritical.

There is no difference between this type of window dressing and that which takes place when White owned companies try to pass themselves off as being Black owned for the purposes of winning government contracts and other business. The DA, or even Agang for that matter, does not seek to represent the interests of those people who have been or whose ancestors were classified as Black, Coloured or Indian.

Rather, it seeks to promote leaders who people will identify with on racial grounds.  In that sense, the promotion of Black leaders without the requisite policies to advance the social, political and economic interests of the Black majority and without clear policies to seek redress for the historical injustices of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and apartheid are actually nothing short of a lie to the electorate. It is a blatant confidence trick to win their vote.

The irony of the DA-Agang courtship is that conservative White DA members opposed it, because they don't trust Black leaders. For example, look at what Black DA members did to the Labour relations Amendment Bill and on BEE policies-they agreed with the ANC. This was an act against the interests of propertied Whites in the DA and the Black Johnny come lately were duly slapped into place by the "baases and madams" for daring to think for themselves. But the promotion of Ramphele was also opposed by those very same Black DA leaders who were recruited by Zille and others for the purposes of fronting.

Clearly, these opportunists and careerists do not relish sharing the spoils of collaboration with the wealthy with any newcomers. This is hardly surprising, given that such petite-bourgeois elements have to fight tooth and nail for the crumbs thrown them by their political masters.

Similarly, a large number of Coloured DA members feel marginalized by the rapid promotion (affirmative action) of Black leaders in the DA. Ironically, in the lists that the DA has drawn up for Parliament, it has also marginalized White, mainly Afrikaans members in the interest of promoting Black leaders.

This hypocrisy and the failure to openly confront these contradictions will come back to haunt the DA. In the meantime it has to hastily paper over the cracks that this embarrassing spectacle has revealed. After all, it is election time again.

This episode is a stark reminder to those starry eyed people who confuse building non-racialism with pretending race does not matter. Because race is constructed in social, political and economic terms, until these contradictions are overcome, race will always matter. True non-racialism can only come from real transformation. The DA and Agang have not advanced policies that would ensure this. Voters are not idiots. They vote for parties based on their policies. That's why the ANC wins elections.

The ANC has had non-racial leadership for decades, in its political structures, in parliament and in government. The leaders of the ANC and its allies were chosen because of their contribution to the struggle for liberation and for their track record that gives people the confidence that they will see the program of transformation through.

White, Coloured and Indian leaders earned their leadership role in the ANC by identifying with and fighting alongside the African majority. African members of the ANC built a culture of trust and solidarity with Whites, Coloureds and Indians by judging them on their actions and not on the colour of their skin.

Race matters less in the ANC than in the DA because it is recognized as a social category and is confronted as such. It does not mean that there are no racial issues in the ANC, but it does mean that these issues and the racial categories people have been given are understood as just that-categories given by others.

Non-racialism is one of the objectives of our society. But to achieve it, deracialisation of the economy and society at large must also take place. There are no short cuts.

Liberalism is not about race, it's about rights. Its limitations are that it is an ideology that can be manipulated by conservatives who pay lip service to transformation. Real transformation will happen though addressing the legacy of slavery, colonialism and apartheid. Anything else that is offered to voters is nothing other than a lie.

Dr Phillip Dexter is an academic, an activist and an entrepreneur. He is a member of the ANC. He writes in his personal capacity.

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