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The great race issue in the DA has again taken centre stage after some members questioned whether the concept of diversity is being used to smuggle in rigid racial categories.

The latest showdown, two weeks before its federal congress on April 7 and 8, has been set off by a five-page letter to delegates titled Real progressives reject groupthink, authored by MPs Michael Cardo and Gavin Davis.

The letter cautions against “ANC-ese” talk in the party about race ahead of congress.

“If these [media] reports are to be believed, the ‘progressives’ want race quotas applied to the party’s representatives in Parliament and other legislatures. The ‘progressives’ (who are almost always quoted anonymously) speak a sort of dialect of ANC-ese, in which terms like racial ‘transformation’ and demographic ‘representivity’ are parroted un-self-consciously,” they write.

The bone of contention stems from the tabling of a proposal to amend the party’s constitution to include diversity as a value.

City Press understands that some in the party say the letter is alarmist and reeks of a “swart gevaar” warning.

The federal congress has been viewed as a “battle for the soul of the DA”, which will pit those who want to maintain the status quo against those who want to see change in the party in order to win the support of more black voters.

Diversifying the party has been the rallying cry of party leader Mmusi Maimane, who has been relentless in his call for the DA’s parliamentary benches to be more “transformed”.

Cardo and Davis write that they welcome the addition of diversity as a value, but take issue with its loose definition.

“This clause – in its current formulation – does very little to distinguish the DA from the ANC’s doctrine of racial representivity.

“According to the ANC’s world-view of representivity, every organisation needs to be transformed until its demographic breakdown is an exact mirror of the population as a whole.

“The job of each person in the organisation is to represent the racial category that apartheid imposed on them, with little room for individual agency or personal autonomy.”

In a letter of reply penned by KwaZulu-Natal DA legislature member Hlanganani Gumbi, he accuses the authors of “lambasting” a motion championed by Maimane.

He says he agrees with the authors that the ANC’s diversity should not mean “racial representivity”.

Gumbi quotes from former DA strategist Ryan Coetzee’s speech, titled Building a party for All, delivered to the DA federal council in October 2006. In it, Gumbi says, Coetzee “made it abundantly clear that diversity is about bringing in decision-making people of wide-ranging experiences and backgrounds without assuming that people can only be represented by others of the same colour and gender”.

Anyone, of any colour, should be able to hold any position, Gumbi quotes Coetzee saying.

“I would venture into arguing that all too often, the diversity of South Africa is not on display in too many areas of our party, nor do we bring in decision-making people of wide-ranging experiences. This not only becomes an affront to many people left out, but further makes it questionable to what extent we take diversity seriously,” Gumbi says.

He laments that in his home city of eThekwini, the DA structure recently elected 11 leaders, without a single black person and only one woman.

Last week, City Press reported on an uproar about the alleged lack of black delegates from townships at the upcoming congress. Gumbi also addresses this in his letter.

Gauteng DA legislature member and premier hopeful Makashule Gana, meanwhile, has warned against being dismissive of the points made by Cardo and Davis.

“If there is anyone who will have a go at Gavin as a person or Michael as a person and not engage on the issues that they are raising, we will have a problem … We must never close the space for people to raise their views on these matters,” Gana told City Press.

He said the DA needed to agree on a definition of diversity at its congress.

Maimane said the debate was an important one for the party and that the DA needed to speak to South Africa’s past.

“This is not a battle of progressives or conservatism, but about the DA occupying the centre space of politics, where the rights of all South Africans are protected. It’s about building a party that can give voice and leadership to all of society, an acknowledgment of our past and an appreciation of our diversity.”

Davis reiterated yesterday that the motivation for the letter is to bring about constructive engagement.

The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting in Cape Town has been deliberating on whether to hold early elections, sources have told News24.

According to the sources, some within the party’s highest decision making body want the ANC to call for an early election, convinced the party would win. The argument is based on perceptions that the opposition is in disarray. They also want to capitalise on the so called “Ramaphoria” sentiment gripping parts of the country.

The NEC discussed the contentious issue on Saturday, while debating President Cyril Ramaphosa’s political report that was presented on Friday.

Sources told News24 that speakers were divided over whether an early elections could guarantee the ANC a decisive victory given the loss of confidence over the past decade under former president Jacob Zuma’s tumultuous government. 

Losing votes

The ANC has been on an electoral decline since the 2009 elections under Zuma, who inherited a party that had garnered a two thirds majority led by former president Thabo Mbeki in 2004.

The next elections are due to be held between May and August 2019.

“There were some who were saying it’s important to capture the positive mood in the country since Cyril Ramaphosa’s election,” said an NEC member who did not want to be named.

Ramaphosa has been on a clean up campaign, since he led talks to force a reluctant Zuma to resign. He reshuffled his Cabinet, ridding it of ministers seen to be linked to Zuma and regarded as incompetent, and perceived to be implicated in various corruption scandals.

This week he suspended SA Revenue Service boss Tom Moyane, saying he had lost confidence in him to continue collecting much-needed tax amidst a R50bn collection shortfall.

Another NEC member said the party still had a lot of work to do to convince the public that it had changed. 

A lack of confidence

“People still need to regain [our] confidence, some are still not convinced that we will get rid of corruption, rebuild the economy and deliver on services, he said.

One NEC member referred to the recent horrific death of 5-year-old Lumka Mketwa, who drowned in a pit latrine at her school in the Eastern Cape.

Another NEC member was concerned that the party was not ready for elections, citing it’s internal turmoil with at least five provinces still due to hold provincial elections. At least two are being led by disputed interim structures. 

The ANC has previously shot down calls by the opposition Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters for Parliament to be dissolved and for the country to hold an early election.

Other NEC members raised concerns that the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) would not be ready to manage and administer an election. The IEC still has to finalise the voter register and ensure all addresses for voters are captured as directed by a 2016 Constitutional court ruling. 

A renewed ANC

“I am not convinced that we must go for an early elections as the ANC itself needs to be renewed”, an NEC member said.

“In some areas you need to remove the current leaders first because they have closed the organisation. You can’t have these narrow cliques leading”, he continued.

The party was due to discuss troubled provinces, with Ramaphosa said to have called for provincial party leadership elections to be held after June when a new digital membership system is introduced.

However, some of the party leaders who were linked to the Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma presidential race want ANC provincial elections to be held by May. 

Sources said Sbu Ndebele’s report into the Eastern Cape conference, known as the so called “festival of chairs” after violence broke out, is yet to be tabled.

The party is already gearing up for the anticipated 2019 national election campaign, having appointed former police minister and NEC member Fikile Mbalula as its head of elections, and having recently held an election workshop. 

No final resolution was taken by Saturday evening, with the NEC meeting expected to end on Sunday.

ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule is due to hold a briefing on the outcome once the meeting is over. 

POLOKWANE – The Limpopo police have warned motorists heading to Polokwane to avoid using the R101, following a bridge collapse.

The bridge is near the Carousel casino.

Police are also on high alert for crocodiles on the loose in the area.

No casualties have been reported.

eNCA