Cape Town - It appears the so-called “black caucus” in the DA has put leader Helen Zille firmly in her place, Cosatu in the Western Cape said on Tuesday.
“Helen Zille and the white defenders of the apartheid generational advantage in South Africa were soundly beaten by the black caucus of the DA,” Congress of SA Trade Unions provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said in a statement.
“Helen Zille and the DA appear to 'kick her traditional white support base into touch' at their policy conference in Cape Town over the weekend.”
Speaking at the end of her party's federal council meeting in Cape Town on Sunday, Democratic Alliance Zille said race remained a legitimate measure of disadvantage in South Africa.
She said the conference could be summarised in three broad themes.
“The first is we support BBBEE (broad-based black economic empowerment) that creates jobs… The second is that black advancement benefits everyone. And the third is we support BBBEE when it is broad-based and productive.”
She said this did not imply the party supported the ANC's approach to redress.
Ehrenreich said it would be interesting to see how the DA's white supporters reacted to what he called affirmative action with a few “frills” becoming part of the party's policy to attract black voters.
“This poses an interesting dilemma for politics in the Western Cape and politics in the DA in the run up to the general elections.
“Zille is playing a high risk game assuming that whites will not go to another party and that blacks are the most important numbers for their party to secure,” he said. - Sapa