Could the DA tackle Mashaba for copyright infringement?

When Herman Mashaba announced his new party, Action SA, I thought okaaaayyyy, then spent the next few moments speculating over what the party will offer.

We didn’t have to wait long though, to be informed of the “seven core values”: non-racialism, economic prosperity, social justice, quality education, rule of law, electoral reform, and ethical leadership.

I know these words.

In part, it’s because these words hardly have the capacity to distinguish them from any other upstart party.

I mean, “Rule of Law” was on the Purple Cow campaign posters, and economic prosperity sounds a lot like “growing South Africa together”. You can plug and play slogans pretty easily and across campaigns.

You may think “Slaan Terug” was a 2019 campaign but in 1999, that’s the exact wording that appeared on Tony Leon’s posters.

It’s all getting rather monotonous and I wish somebody would do something about it, even if it was as ridiculous as suing for copyright infringement. Sure, we’ll have to wait and see the manifestation of these seven core values from ol’ Mashaba, but from what’s in front of us, that curation of values looks like a play right out of the DA play book.

You wouldn’t even be faulted for reading them in the voice of a Mmusi Maimane automated voice call in 2019.

I may be jesting on the copyright issue, because one can’t exactly copyright an idea or political concept, but at best one can make an ambitious claim that he’s passing himself off as the party he once belonged to. Though with different branding, even the same ideas won’t fool the most unreasonable people into thinking he’s under the brand DA.

So a legal copyright claim is out of the question, but what about a self-regulating one; one where he thinks to himself, “hang on. Isn’t this all a bit silly?” because from the offset it seems so.

What’s the unique selling proposition? Is he playing the identity card? Is this good for the political landscape?

Fortunately, South African politics has a recent rich history of political parties spawning that we can draw models on.

Let’s deal with low hanging fruit first –  the identity card.

It appears that the way Action SA is positioned is in the realm of old ideas but with people you like. It may have worked out well for one election cycle for Cope but since then, as the electorate, we’ve mostly just received parliamentary Willie Madisha’s comedic outtakes from their benches. And that’s been reflected in their exceptional drop in support,which is more than one can say about Agang SA who only did slightly worse than the Purple Cows.

South Africans aren’t that stupid, and though many may be rallying around Jacob Zuma’s mic drop letter, when it comes to actually going to the polls, it’s going to take more than buzz words to make a dent. It’s going to take speaking to an emotional connection.

This is why the Freedom Front Plus had its best proportional performance in its history last year, and while they aren’t a new party, their strategical positioning this time around was as great as that of the more recent EFF. It’s just that the EFF have a larger potential audience, so the former hits their ceiling significantly easier.

Both though do more than buzz words. They curate buzz words to connect emotionally with what their audience feels.

Who is Action SA’s audience and what are they trying to connect to?

There’s a reason the big parties shy away from emotive sloganeering.

Once your pool is big enough, not getting your message spot on could be pretty isolating. There’s a reason the ANC can’t go for the radicalism of the EFF… Well, a few reasons really, but the point is that once somebody is isolated, where do they go?

Well they certainly shouldn’t go for that the same thing in a different colour but they can’t venture too far from home. That’s where splinter parties have value. They offer enough distinction on some key aspects, but maintain fundamental foundations that could be a new home to those disillusioned by the party splintered from.

But then you need to dispel the disillusion and that means spelling out the distinction.

It’s good for democracy when breakaways form to create a new home even if that home is built next door. You just can’t use the same bricks and time will tell if Action SA actually springs for new building materials or simply pulls those out of its old premises.

Richard Anthony Chemaly entertainment attorney, radio broadcaster and lecturer of communication ethics.

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