"I don't know, I feel like no one pays us any attention anymore. We need to do something new, something meaningful."
Not a defence of the African National Congress, but a critique of its opposition
We'll start from post-colonisation. South Africa becomes independent in 1931. In 1948, the National Party comes to power, continuing and entrenching the policies of racial segregation inherited from the Dutch and British colonialists. The next 46 years stand as a monument to division, fear and bigotry: Apartheid.
The flag: the 'Driekleur'
In retrospect, it's the perfect symbol of hatred. Since its adoption in 1928, the flag has been unloved be one group or another. The Brits hated it because it represented efforts to secede from the Empire and colonial influence. The Afrikaners hated it because it displays a miniature Union Jack. Almost everyone else ended up hating it because of the government and policies it came to represent. It is our shame and our horror; it is our Swastika and our white hood.
The Democratic Alliance: always a bridesmaid
In one form or another, the party has existed for a long time - through the majority of the Apartheid era as the opposition to the National Party's policies. It emerged as the Democratic Party in 1989, later to become the Democratic Alliance in 2000. This is integral to understanding the mindset of the party: it has always been an opposition.
The idealised model of democracy encourages a multi-party system of government elected by the people. South Africa has never been ideal. Power passed from the colonialists to the National Party to the ANC. 'Opposition' has just been a name. It means nothing. And those in charge of this 'opposition' have known it. You can imagine this being frustrating: always arguing, always counterbalancing, always questioning. But nothing you really do matters, nothing changes anything. To be fair, the party has made inroads recently, particularly in the Western Cape, where improved service delivery is held up as an "I told you so" to the rest of the ANC-governed municipalities in the country.
In the grand scheme of things, though, nothing much has changed. The DA is ever reactionary, ever mewing, even childish. It concentrates on picking holes in what the ANC is doing, not appealing to a new identity to which the average South African can attach him or herself.
For heaven's sake, don't say they crossed the Rubicon
We won't cover here the speech given by Botha, which marked the beginning of the end of Apartheid. But you can imagine the sense of frustration at DA headquarters. The ANC gets votes regardless of what it does. The liberators, rightly or wrongly, will long enjoy the support of the majority of South Africans. If anything, we can critique the party for becoming too big. It has always said it is of all churches, but it is being pulled in too many directions by too many interests. Often the sense is of a wise few holding the whole thing together at the seams.
The next election looms in 2014 and the runup begins now. It must have been with some desperation, then, that the DA composed what has been identified as an internal document slating the ANC. This was not their usual brand of reactionary rhetoric. They chose to incorporate the ANC logo in the dreaded Driekleur. The ANC is just like the Nats, they said. They crossed a line. The collective gasp and shaking of heads was audible all the way from muddy London. I speak for myself when I say it evoked outrage, anger and sadness, but an immediate poll of my contemporaries reveals similar reactions.
Why we fall
It all came to a head, then. Some sort of desperate, hail Mary, last gasp effort to convince South Africa that they need change. I would explore their motives and the parallels between the National Party and the ANC, but I have nothing. They're both in Politics? They're both registered in South Africa? The National Party stood for the subjugation of many by a few; for suppression and misery and terror. The ANC? For liberation. For imperfect governance. For measured, sometimes sluggish, change. The basest comparison might conclude that both enjoy unchallenged power. But the nature of this power couldn't be more different. The ANC needs a wakeup call, a legitimate opposition, even a challenge from within (COPE provided perhaps the first instance of this) - not international intervention to halt bigotry and oppression.
As in any functional democracy, my politics don't count for much. But, collectively, they matter. And I can't help feel that this could be the catalyst for something. My leaning in the past might have been to vote for the DA, if only to give the ANC some sort of counterbalance in parliamentary proceedings. But now? No chance. If an election were held tomorrow I would spoil my ballot. There is no viable alternative, and from this we must conclude that our political system is fundamentally broken. And consider the reaction of the average South African. The DA evoking the ghosts of the past to try and muddy the reputation of the liberator? I lament the morally bankrupt conduct of the official opposition party, but perhaps we have been given a peek behind the curtain of the Wizard of Oz. We deserve better than this opposition relic. No, we, as a nation, need better.
