South Africa’s main opposition party implodes
Oct 24th 2019JOHANNESBURGIN SOUTH AFRICAN politics it is a feat to make the African National Congress (ANC) look harmonious. Yet over the past week the Democratic Alliance (DA), the country’s main opposition party, has done just that. On October 20th Helen Zille, its outspoken former leader, was elected to chair the DA’s federal council, a key party post. That decision prompted the DA’s Herman Mashaba to resign as the mayor of Johannesburg. Two days later Mmusi Maimane, the party leader, also said he was stepping down.The resignations of the DA’s two most prominent black politicians ultimately reflect the party’s failure to resolve its position on the most emotive of South African issues: race. In the 1990s the Democratic Party (DP), the forerunner of the DA, was an avowedly liberal movement. In the view of its then leader, Tony Leon, the best way to tackle the poverty and inequality left by apartheid was through economic growth and education reform, not, for example, affirmative action. “Race is a red herring,” stated the manifesto of the DP in 1999.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address