Cape Town - A DA pamphlet showing Nelson Mandela and Helen Suzman embracing, with the words “We played our part in opposing apartheid”, has angered the ANC, who say the party should not have used either of the two leaders.
Neither were ever members of the DA, the ANC has charged.
The pamphlet, in which Suzman is identified as founder of the DA, is one of several in the DA’s “Know your DA” campaign in the build-up to the general elections next year.
ANC Western Cape chairman Marius Fransman slammed the DA campaign as a “cynical and opportunistic exercise in propaganda”.
But the DA said Mandela was a global icon and Suzman was a member of a predecessor party of the DA.
Fransman said: “This ploy is the latest in a litany of examples of its politics of deception and deceit as the DA desperately attempts to woo black voters.”
The ANC acknowledged the role played by Suzman in opposing the National Party in the apartheid Parliament before 1994, he said.
“It is debatable whether or not her role can be claimed as revolutionary. More importantly, of having any bearing on the values of the DA as a party today.”
Suzman, who served in Parliament for 36 years as an opposition MP during apartheid, had been a member of the Progressive Party which became the Progressive Federal Party and later merged with other parties to become the DA.
“Does (DA leader Helen) Zille honestly believe that she will be able to convince the majority of South Africans that the DA as a party has its roots in fighting apartheid when in fact its history and its current service delivery record where it governs tells another story?
“This cynical and transparent attempt to rewrite history and to pretend that most of the DA’s members and leaders were not beneficiaries of apartheid but champions against that crime against humanity is dishonest and desperate.”
The DA’s director of communications, Gavin Davis, said the party had every right to use the image and take ownership of Suzman’s role in ending apartheid.
“Nelson Mandela is a global icon and national hero. He is not the property of any political party.
“Helen Suzman was a Member of Parliament for the Progressive Party, a predecessor party of the DA. The values she stood for are defended and promoted by the DA today.”
He said the DA had seen “overwhelmingly positive response” to the campaign.
“The campaign tells the untold story of how current DA leaders and their predecessors fought apartheid. Most people we speak to on the ground and on social media love the image and message of the campaign.”
Davis said that Mandela had “recognised the role Helen Suzman played in opposing apartheid and we wanted to convey that message.”
The Helen Suzman Foundation’s Kameel Premhid said the foundation had no issue with the DA using the image as part of its campaign.
He said Suzman, who died four years ago aged 91, had belonged to the political party which the DA had grown from.
Premhid said the DA continued to champion the principles which Suzman had stood for.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.
Cape Times