DA federal congress will show ‘if party has blurred perceived racial lines’

As the Democratic Alliance (DA) gears up for its 2023 federal congress, it’s all systems go as the party welcomes more than 2 000 delegates and about 400 members of the media to its conference.

The party will elect new leadership and pronounce on new policy proposals at the event, taking place at Gallagher Estate in Johannesburg today and tomorrow.

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The party’s chief presiding officer, Greg Krumbock, said this would be the DA’s largest and the most diverse federal congress in the history of the party.

“All preparations are complete, and we are ready to welcome our delegates, South Africa and the world to a congress that will shape the future of our country,” he said.

Delegates hail from all parts of the country, with Krumbock saying the DA is an “inclusive party” with 45% of those attending being non-public representatives, coming from branches.

“The size of the event speaks to the tremendous growth of the DA over the years,” he said.

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“The party has exponentially grown since 2015 when we had just over 1 200 delegates. The congress is important for South Africa because the leaders elected may very well be the leaders who will reshape national government as the ANC’s support drops below 50% in 2024.”

DA congress ‘watershed’

Touching on the importance of having a strong opposition, political analyst Goodenough Mashego said it was crucial, but what was also required was a sympathetic opposition which represented what the majority wanted to see happen and not the minority.

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According to Mashego, the DA congress was watershed because of particular aspects, which included cementing the assertion by many that the DA was a white party at leadership level.

“Very few black people are emerging at leadership level and those who do emerge will be seen at positions that do not really weight much influence,” he said.

“This conference will just show whether the DA has overcome a way of looking at things in terms of race, or has gone back to becoming a white party.”

The programme was to include speeches by candidates for federal leader, discussions on constitutional amendments, organisational reports, congress awards and election result announcements. The DA planned to deliberate and vote on resolutions which sought to address the many issues which would confront the people of this country.

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Krumbock said these would include resolutions on building the economy and creating jobs, urban and rural safety and the restoration of the parliament of South Africa.

‘Black people for black people’

Mashego said an opposition which understood the history of SA was important and one could not address the systemic effect of apartheid without having policies that redressed black economic empowerment, defined differently and had affirmative action.

“The DA needs to be able to differentiate between the ANC as a party with a large number of corrupt people and the black project – which meant what needed to be done by black people for black people – to compete with others on the same level,” he said.

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“They need to work hard towards relating to everyone else. It is going to be an important conference but I doubt it will be relatable to black people.”