Posters and shock jocks: DA leaders give pause for thought

It has been said before, but it is worth repeating: electioneering is no different to marketing and advertising… and if you have to explain your message (because people interpreted it in a way you didn’t like) then that message doesn’t work.

At the risk of riling die-hard Democratic Alliance (DA) supporters out there, it is obvious that in this local government election campaign, the party is having to “explain” itself – or, more specifically, the actions and words of its leaders – far too often.

First, it was the posters in Phoenix in Durban, which hailed the local (mainly Indian) community as heroes for protecting their property during the July rioting, incurring the wrath of Africans because more than 30 of them were killed there.

Then it was Natasha Mazzone social media “meltdown”. And now it is DA leader John Steenhuisen explaining that he is a victim of the “facial expression police”.

Steenhuisen sat smirking and nodding while shock jock Gareth Cliff talked over One South Africa Movement member Mudzuli Rakhivhane, dismissing her lived experience of racism as nothing more than ‘anecdotal’.

In conducting himself as he did, Steenhuisen associated himself with Cliff’s misogynistic, and racist, behaviour, whether he or his party like it or not.

And that is not a great look for a party which wants to be winning over more black people, and women, to its side.

Apologists for the DA are already pointing out that the behaviour of some people in its ranks – even its leaders – does not define the party or what it stands for.

And that is certainly true… because there are many good and hardworking people in the party who want a non-racial society.

But the antics of some DA leaders give pause for thought: is this just out of character behaviour or the party’s true nature?