I HAVE never nor will I ever be a member of the Democratic Alliance. This disclosure is intended as a courtesy. It comes at a time when there is much concern among the ruling party, their alliance partners and their supporters regarding what has been termed "the DA's agents in the media".
Witch-hunts, like the sniffing of bedsheets by apartheid-era vice cops, are messy affairs; it would be greatly embarrassing should those who consider it their business to determine such things waste their time and resources in attempting to gauge my political allegiances.
The truth is I have none. In this regard, I'm something of an Other Marxist; I wouldn't want to belong to any club or association that would have me as a member and so I refuse to join or support any particular political party. Thus I exercise my constitutional right to distance myself from gangs of psychopaths who feel compelled to bother and meddle in the affairs of the citizenry.
But, as they say, no man's an island and, however lacklustre it may seem, I will continue to do my bit for civil society. Count on me to be loud and indignant, for example, whenever there are attempts to curb freedom of expression and other liberties.
I wasn't always such a militant non-joiner. I supported the End Conscription Campaign and was active in getting drunk at their concerts. Even, sometimes, at their church vigils. But that was in the 1980s when Magnus Malan, the world's only defence minister to resemble a Volkswagen Beetle with the doors open, wanted me to muck about in citizen force camps and do all manner of unpleasant things.
I was also an office-bearer with the South African Society of Journalists. This too was in the 1980s, before journalists were embarrassed by the outdated "imperial" nature of the SASJ and changed its name to the militant-sounding SA Union of Journalists. Members later voted to dissolve the union. More fool us, as recent events have shown, but that's perhaps another matter.