DA turns black tide against it

If you’re a political party trying to be all things to all people – as the Democratic Alliance (DA) seems to want to do – you’re bound to alienate some of your members.

At the risk of raising the ire of the DA party faithful, we have to wonder, though, whether the organisation is aware of the damage it is doing to its reputation among black people – the very constituency it wants to attract to bolster its campaign to remove the ANC from office.

It has announced, with great huffing and puffing, that it will “take legal action” against two African former members of the party for their allegedly defamatory claims that there is corruption within the DA ranks.

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Mbali Ntuli, who left the party 20 months ago, and Tsepo Mhlongo both posted on social media this week about that alleged corruption.

For his comments, Mhlongo was disciplined by the party for “dishonesty” and expelled.

Whatever spin the DA leadership tries to put on it, its target audience in the townships will interpret the latest developments as further evidence that the party is controlled by white, conservative people and that it is a hostile place for a black person with an opinion.