DA Angus

DA Angus

Both Angus’s videos - laughable as they might have been - glibly allowed a portrayal of ‘Coloured’ people challenging the WC DA hegemony as bullies and gangsters, not an unfamiliar characterisation by the DA in the WC of anybody ‘Coloured’ with such a disposition.

Since lived experience is trumped by statistics which reduces my understanding of what is really going on to my opinion anyway, I’m going to refrain from listing examples of behaviour that illuminates these observations so it’s really up to the reader’s desire to hear of maybe an alternative reason as to why for example people in Bonteheuwel weren’t just exposing a ‘slave mentality’ when they voted, that will dictate whether you’ll hear me out

Be that as it may

Consider for a moment that much of the liberation struggle in the Western Cape was centred around the Mass Democratic Movement and The United Democratic Front and their telling contribution to such, whilst at the same time The Tricameral Parliament was being propped up by Alan Hendricks and that arm of ‘Coloured’ complicity in the machinations of The Apartheid Government. The ‘Coloured’ vote in the Western Cape, contrary to all portrayals, has never been a homogenous one.

The first Democratic Elections set the tone for who would be the ‘side’ to consider when the New National Party raced to victory in the Western Cape. The message to the ‘Coloured’ constituencies was very clear, and backed up by the appointment of a succession of Mayors and other strategically-placed appointments within councils and across wards over the years. This approach was supported and enabled by politics, business and the White hegemony that parades as egalitarianism in the WC.

Hendricks represented the start of a succession of ‘Coloured’ leaders memorable for their terms in Office because they were there, two - Marais and Morkel - doing it twice, and eventually ending with exited Mayor Dan Plato, a man proud of the time he spent within the National Party of Apartheid. The relevance of this is that they benefited. The follow-on is the side that had the ear of resources and access benefited.

The Struggle Elite (those who weren’t killed, exiled or jailed) were absorbed into the ANC to concentrate on the national situation. Alan Boesak, one of the most vocal critics of Apartheid, stood discredited, tarred with the brush of corruption, and also quashed any suggestion that the ANC in the Western Cape had any good intent towards ‘Coloured’ People since Boesak was made the embodiment of the ANC in this province - Accountability and Struggle Accounting being topics of avoidance for the ANC made Boesak collateral damage, and set the ANC in the Western Cape adrift.

Anti-Blackness and Otherness , children of Apartheid enabled by White Supremacy, found public banners to scurry around and find voice - ‘Keep The ANC Out’, ‘Ask Mandela For A House’, ‘Not White enough then, Not Black enough now’, ‘The Blacks get everything’, ‘At least under Apartheid…’, ‘Colonialism wasn’t all bad’, ‘It’s National Government’s fault’, ‘What has the government (ANC) done for you?’, ‘Why do you hate White People?’, ‘Look, that MIGHT be so, but here it works like THIS!’, and really a list the size of an epic novel to confound any suggestion that Racism (consciously or otherwise) doesn’t still impact on the lie of the land, but a momentary full stop must go to the deliciously ironic ‘Imagine a South Africa without the DA’

The DA wholeheartedly embraced the bumbling post-Apartheid misguided-ness of the ‘Coloured Right Wing’. As the opposition in the WC the ANC was regarded with the same disdain that the ‘Coloured Left’ was treated with in communities. Any criticism from such quarters was ascribed to nefarious political motives. Questioning of their policies indicated an intelligence incompetency. Disregard for their approach meant a perverse addiction to suffering. And any idea that what is currently manifesting in poor and marginalised communities isn’t somehow ‘their own fault’ or ‘the fault of the ANC’ is drowned in statistics and studies

The DA confirmed that their priority was the ‘haves’, the beneficiaries of systemic racism, what Malcolm X called ‘House Negroes’ someone reminded me, and that their policy and approach was aligned with such. The fractured nature of ‘Coloured’/Black’ engagement was either ignored or disregarded and their non-racial approach allowed for an insistence on an adherence to the rules and requirements of the status quo - in the Cape predominantly rich, White people. The DA has consolidated its position as representative of that status quo, it’s vanguard and its voice

Of course, the racists in these ranks - and how unlikely is that really now? - love using the ‘House Negro’ as their example of how they’re getting it right. But they’re not. The DA is doing exactly what they say:

They’re the best-run of all the provinces in SA

They’ve kept the Cape DA

And they hold the ANC responsible for all the ills that befall communities

Does this explain why Bonteheuwel voted for Angus?

Maybe

Maybe people weren’t voting for Angus, maybe they were voting for the DA

So does it explain why people voted for the DA?

Maybe, volgens low vote turnout though the blue came through

Is this worrying for Democracy?

Not half as worrying as the numbers around voter participation

The DA won in Bonteheuwel.

But is that a win for Bonteheuwel?

Not judging by Angus’ videos

SP