All Hail The Black Curtain(s)!
Lindiwe Mazibuko's successful bid for the highest DA position in Parliament has been hailed by many in the media and political commentator circles as a momentous event signalling a turn in the South African political tide.
What most are failing to see, report on or comment on is how carefully orchestrated from within the bid was. The DA announced in September 2011 that it intends winning the national polls come the 2019 national elections.
To attain this goal, the DA needs to be seen to be transformed. In South African terms, this simply means having apparently high-ranking, visible Black faces within the party - white corporate South Africa has mastered this art and the DA, under the direction of the party's most vocal (and probably able) spin doctor, Helen Zille, is just bound to perfect it.
Until around the 2009 national elections, the DA was, in my view, rightly perceived by many as a ‘white' political party concerned primarily with protecting the interests of white South Africans. Although less widespread, this perception still remains. Understandably, the perception has created a huge headache for the ever-ambitious DA, whose main aim from day one has been to unseat the ANC as the country's governing political party.
The question of how to seriously challenge the ANC at the national polls has been mulled over by the opposition since the advent of democracy. Anyone who knows anything about the country's political landscape will know that the DA is run much like a corporate entity. I imagine therefore that some white bright spark(s) within the DA must have realised, and convinced others, that to attract the Black "masses" the DA will have to "transform" along the lines of white corporate South Africa.