How do you beat a strong brand? can you? The ANC was invincible. It got votes from true believers. There were values and something to believe in. Everyone said the issue was an uneducated, ignorant vote, blindly taking the ANC forward. I have not seen evidence of ignorant voting. I have seen evidence of trusting, blind faith being horribly misrepresented by those to whom their loyal vote was trusted to. But ignorance? no. We are highly politicised in this country with EVERYONE having an informed (maybe wrong) opinion, regardless of education or social rank. The ANC in my opinion abused this trust and became like the Nationalists, their mentors, a self serving nepotistic bunch, hell bent on furthering their own political agendas and lining pockets. The thing that shocked in the arms deal was not the corruption, but how cheaply the mighty fell. The ANC is no longer invincible. Jacob Zuma and Mbeki going head to head. Emperor Mbeki, in his new clothes, had to pull a Julius Caesar on squeaky clean JZ in his farewell speech. Until Thabo brought loyalty within the ANC into question. Until the party pulled it’s own sword through its own soft, warm, well fed, belly. So now we have two ANCs. Which is the true one? Do we care? What we have now is JZ keeping his Dog Malema from upsetting the neighbours from incessant aggravating yelping. We have an ANC careful with what it says and does. The ANC is merrily on the path to self destruction. There is an opportunity for our immature democracy to rise new, shining and at last, thinking.
We are however disenfranchised from a liberal, white, DA vote. Others are disenfranchised by ANC 1 & 2. The other parties, if they are still out there, seem to be about niche job creation for themselves.
I have said and will say again, the DA, as brave as it is to re-brand, has not done enough. Cool new logo.
Even a Wordpress site at http://www.da.org.za/ . Even with the amazing mommy Zille smiling from the website banner, this is not nearly enough.
The DA is still an apartheid relic in many minds (See bottom of article for its history). It has spent the last 98 years as opposition, usually the official opposition. Has the DA got so used to always being the bridesmaid? No more quests for Magic Potion. The DA needs to think about winning. Brave strategy is required. A little tweaking is not what got Obama on top. We need a vision and a story. We need a strong brand with no residual bullshit from the past. What is needed is clear strong visions and values. A brand that South Africans can believe in without looking back. we need to look forward to a new strong non-racial vision of economic prosperity, social conscience, transparency and trusted leaders. This can’t be that hard to produce.
The DA hasn’t the sticky crud of the ANC, With leaders free of criminal accusation. With no Arms Deal grime, without Polekwane, without being the guys that disbanded the Scorpions while they were investigating you. The DA has a serious issue, it needs to be a party without a stigma of apartheid legacy, even as the opposition. It needs to be seen as more than a whiney liberal white coalition. It is not enough to be clear thinking and against bad policy.
No more rising from Phoenix ashes please. Disband. Re-form. Take in some ANC big boys and other great leaders with no place to call home. But do not rebrand. Do not re-name. Dissolve, disband and rise as something new, with a new vision, with a new stronger leadership. Be something we can believe in. Lead. Lead with integrity even. Take less than half the vote, but win. You will have my vote. You will have the coloured vote, you will have the Xhosa vote, and you will have the Zulu, Sotho and every other damn vote, but be brave and just disappear will you?
A brief Pre History of the DA:
1910 The South African Party
1934 The United Party
1959 The Progressive Party,
1975 The Progressive Reform Party.
1977 The Progressive Federal Party
1989 The Democratic Party
2000 The Democratic Alliance (DA)
Courtesy Wikipedia (edited slightly):The Democratic Alliance in its present form is fairly new, its evolution can be traced far back in South African political history, through a complex sequence of splits and mergers:
in 1910 The South African Party won the first general election in the Union of South Africa.The National Party and the South African Party entered into a coalition, which led to the creation of a merged United Party in 1934. This party included both liberal and conservative elements. The United Party continued to exist after 1959 and was the source of several breakaway groups which merged with later ancestor parties. The Progressive Party, was founded in 1959 when liberal members seceded from the United Party. They could not agree with the inability of the UP to present an alternative to the National Party’s apartheid policy. The PP emphasized constitutional reform, a Bill of Rights, an independent judiciary and the evolution towards federalism. These reform proposals were combined with advocacy of a free market economy. In 1961 only Helen Suzman was elected in parliament. For 13 years she was the only opponent of racial discrimination and other apartheid regime’s abuses in the whites-only parliament, fighting against detention without trial, pass laws, influx control etc. In 1975 the party merged with the Reform Party led by Harry Schwarz, a breakaway party of the United Party, forming the Progressive Reform Party. Two years later dissident UP members formed the Committee for a United Opposition, that joined the PRP to form the Progressive Federal Party in 1977. The PFP drew support mainly from liberal English-speaking white South Africans. Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, PFP leader since 1979, resigned from parliament in 1986 because it had, in his view, become irrelevant. Later he formed the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa (IDASA). He was succeeded by Colin Eglin. The PFP was ousted as the official opposition by the far-right Conservative Party in the whites-only parliamentary elections held on 6 May 1987. This electoral blow led many of the PFP’s leaders to question the value of participating in the whites-only parliament, and some of its MPs left to join the National Democratic Movement. In 1987, shortly before the elections, the Independent Party of Denis Worrall was also formed, further splitting the liberal opposition.
After the 1987 elections, the new PFP leader Zach de Beer concluded negotiations with the IP and the NDM to merge into the Democratic Party in 1989, as official opposition.The DP merged with the New National Party (NNP, a re-branding of aprartheids Nationalist party) in 2000 to form the Democratic Alliance (DA). The much smaller Federal Alliance later also merged with the DA. This was done in preparation for the local government elections of December 5, 2000. The brittle alliance with the NNP lasted only until October 2001, when the NNP left to form a new alliance with the African National Congress.
Thanks to Branko Brkic for inspiring me to write this. Daily a true Maverick
