Maimane critiques DA policy conference outcomes as Zille denies purge of leaders

One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane, in discussing his former party’s policy conference outcomes over the weekend, said the political needle needed to shift in a more deliberate manner to carve an able and agile government.

Delegates within the DA not only reached a consensus that they would rely on evidence-based decision-making processes, but emerged from the conference to adopt a “DA economic justice policy” which proposed to do away with race-based empowerment programmes.

Maimane, who once expressed how imperative it was to note racial identities, said the party’s new stance could possibly have a faultline.

“…The one who raises race does not become racist. It feels like there is an impulse that if you raise race then you must be racist, that is not true.

“South Africa belongs to people who live in it, black or white.”

He highlighted how black people remained systematically excluded, which painted a different image to the notion that this reality did not exist.

“…The racial diversity in the country can be a strength,” he said, noting that the societal injustices remained post-apartheid.

Relating to his own life, he said he had come to identify that his wife – who is white – had been advantaged in the past, a function of our history, yet the goal was to deliberately address certain issues which included moving towards a new vision for the country.

“If we do not do that deliberately, we will have a situation where many generations are left out.”

Maimane cautioned the populist agenda which maintained that: “People on the inside want to maintain the rules that keep them on the inside at the expense of those on the outside,” and leaders had to critically understand the state of the country.

Living standards of white people compared to those of black people were in a far better position.

“…One could not ignore the essence of the systemic exclusion of some in society.”

He explained that people must realise that even when one or two black people get the means to achieve, they still end up supporting other family members, a form of black tax.

Maimane called for a re-envisioned society noting that one of the failures of the ANC was that it lacked the vision of the society it wanted to create.

“Can we build a South Africa were both white and blacks benefit?”

While the DA concluded with a shift in how it recognised race going forward, the party’s conference, over the weekend took place against a cloud of issues, among which were investigations and charges pending against a number of its members.

This comes as the DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille, outlining the party’s policy conference, said the “historic conference” reaffirmed what the party meant when dealing with key issues such as economic exclusion.

“Never had there been such an inclusive process in the DA ever, and never before had people had such an enormous opportunity to participate on crucial issues.

“Race has been used by the ANC as a license to loot.”

Addressing the disciplinary charges against certain leaders in the party, she questioned why there were no issues when white members in the party were facing charges.

“There is no purge,” she said adding that Maimane was begged not to resign, the same as former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba.

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