OPINION: It is this racist, colonial thinking that once again grips the DA that explains their downright hypocrisy and illiberalism in denying a debate on Palestine in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature but a year later lights up the Legislature building in the colours of the Ukrainian flag in so-called solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
By Muhammad Khalid Sayed MPL
The recent resignation of Mbali Ntuli adds to a long list of black leaders in the Democratic Alliance which had thought they would find a viable liberal option for South Africa in the DA. Not so.
Professor Eddy Maloka, in his book Friends of the Natives, the inconvenient past of South African liberalism using the work of DA Member of Parliament Dr Michael Cardo, explores the difference between the Liberal Party and the Progressive Party. For example, as Cardo points out, “whereas the Progressives focused on civil rights, the Liberals campaigned for socio-economic rights, proposing various forms of regulation and redistribution to deracialise the economy”.
Maloka then goes on to detail how at its inaugural congress, the PP pledged “its commitment to ‘the maintenance and extension of the values of Western Civilisation’, the ’promotion of friendly relations with other nations, more particularly the members of the Commonwealth and those who share with us the heritage of Western civilisation’.”
As a Prog herself, Helen Zille’s comments and promotion of colonialism must therefore be understood within this context and understanding. History was repeating itself when liberals in the DA, largely the Black caucus, were fighting for the same liberal values as espoused by the old Liberal Party. The Progs in the DA were going to have none of it.
Yet it is this racist, colonial thinking that once again grips the DA that explains their downright hypocrisy and illiberalism in denying a debate on Palestine in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature but a year later lights up the Legislature building in the colours of the Ukrainian flag in so-called solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
After all, it was the racist thinking of the Progs to promote friendly relations with other nations that shared with them the history of Western civilisation. The people of Palestine simply do not fit the Western bill.
The illiberalism of the present DA goes even as far as abandoning the principles of federalism. For even in a federal state, the competencies of defence and foreign policy lay with the federal government. Yet it is Alan Winde and the proteges of the Progs that are pushing rather for independence of the Western Cape, a push based completely on racism than a push for federalism.
Even more so, the Cape Town Press Club, an institution that actively espouses the DA's political posture in the local and national landscape, disinvited Russian diplomats to their event when they hosted the Ukrainian ambassador. This, together with the DA’s ban on Russia, simply illustrates this gross spiral out of liberal control.
Let us take a moment and understand what this ban on Russia will mean for the economy of the Western Cape.
Ivan Meyer, the DA’s deputy federal leader and MEC for Agriculture in the Western Cape, was quoted as saying “that South Africa’s agricultural exports to Ukraine and the Russian Federation were valued at R4.1 million in 2020. Horticultural products, oranges, pears, apples, mandarins, lemons, fresh grapes and wine containers holding 2 litres or less, collectively contributed a share of R3.4 billion – with around 88% of the value attributable to the Western Cape.”
It was convenient for Meyer to include Ukraine but the DA devil is in the detail. The website trademap.com, which provides data on trade, indicates that in 2020 the type of products described by Meyer accounts for R3.2bn of South Africa’s exports to Russia.
Only R120 million worth of these products went to Ukraine. In other words, the Western Cape exports edible fruits to the Russian Federation 28 times the amount it exports to Ukraine. Only the Western Cape farmers will be the losers in the DA’s arrogance towards Russia.
In fact, in general, South Africa exported goods and services to the value of R5.7bn in 2020 to Russia and only R270 million to the Ukraine. Articles and speculation of the West turning its back on South Africa because of its neutral stand in the conflict are scarecrow arguments. Again, we are dealing with a populist DA provincial administration who have little regard or experience of foreign relations and the impact it has on the local economy.
As a non-liberal, one will defend South Africans’ right to a liberal option in order to enhance our democracy. One is just not sure if the DA is actually providing it.
* Muhammad Khalid Sayed is the Deputy Chief Whip of the ANC in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature
** The views expressed here may not necessarily be that of IOL.