The DA and #ImStaying are in blinkers

The more things change the more they stay the same. Faces change, political parties get removed, leaders retire, yet, at the most basic level, things stay the same. Ask the Democratic Alliance.

If the new federal council chair of the DA, Helen Zille, were to be asked about the difference between today’s DA and the DA of Tony Leon in the ’90s she would wax lyrical about the numbers: how the demographics have changed, and how many nonwhite leaders came through the DA. She would be right. But have those changes in demographics translated into changes within the party’s power structure? No, and there is a reason for that.

Cape Town resident Jarrette Petzer has started a movement that is something of a phenomenon. His social media-based #ImStaying movement has now mushroomed to 750 000 people. Their motto is simple: “Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.” The Facebook page is awash with feel-good stories of South Africans of all shapes and sizes.

There is a catch to everything though. The story has to be positive and, yes, no politics.

A movement that will surely hit the million mark before 2019 is out cannot be ignored. It just might become that force that creates the change society needs, but why the refusal to create space for healthy historical debate? It is for this same reason that the DA has changed so much over the years but stayed the same.

Politics and race in SA are inseparable. And because SA’s history is defined by a race-based philosophy, it is impossible to talk politics without coming face-to-face with racism and how this will continue to define inequalities for decades. These are the inequalities that #ImStaying wishes to deal with through good vibes, without allowing a discussion on how they came about, because that’s negative and political. The vibes make people feel the same togetherness that rainbow nationalism brought. “Every little thing’s gonna be all right if we stick together and look forward, and never look back, ever.”

When asked recently if her tweets on colonialism damaged the DA’s chances in the last election Zille acknowledged they might have. But those who wield power in the DA do not think the damage of her distorted views on SA’s past is big enough to taint the party. After all, this is Zille who did an exposé on Steve Biko’s gruesome death and also provided hiding space for armed struggle operatives during apartheid. So no, her views praising colonialism and its positives in Africa cannot be coming from a bad place.

#ImStaying wishes to change things drastically without looking back at the past. The DA has been trying to change itself from within a distorted view of the past. You can’t ignore the past that created what you want to change. #ImStaying should ask the DA.

When “good vibes” come from a common understanding and acceptance of our past, there will be no need for anyone to feel ashamed of their ancestors’ role in it. And real change will come from good “vibes” initiatives. Ignorance is bliss but when the victims realise their material conditions haven’t changed from just “good vibes”, it becomes a breeding ground for resentment.

Ignorance of the past is a fatal flaw for any movement wishing to bring about permanent societal change-centered fairness.

Sydney Majoko.

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