NEWS & ANALYSIS

Why is Lindiwe Mazibuko suddenly "not black enough" for the DA?

Justice Piitso says racial chauvinism is still the cornerstone of the overall recruitment strategy of the DA

The DA has advertised the post of a suitable candidate with the necessary requirements to be black enough to replace Lindiwe Mazibuko.

Our most outstanding leader of the world working class movement Vladimir Lenin had to say the following profound theoretical formulation" men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please, they do not make it under the circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the people".

Our transition from Apartheid colonial society to our new national democratic society is essentially an inevitable outcome of the struggles of our people. It is a product arising out of the common cause and the determination of our struggle against national oppression and exploitation.

The racist comments by the leadership core of the Democratic Alliance that their parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko is not black enough to succeed Madam Hellen Zille are ponderous. These backward and most inferior statements confirm our long held view that racial discrimination is an essential ingredient of the overall strategic objectives of the democratic alliance.

The simplest mathematical formula here implies that Lindiwe Mazibuko is not black enough precisely because she does not meet the criteria of standards required by the DA, for a suitable(black) person who can attract majority of the black South Africans into its own ranks. In other words she failed the performance agreement she entered into when she was as a result of the very same reason, employed as a parliamentary leader of the party.

The theory is as simple as ABC, bring more black to be black enough to meet the set of criteria of standards required for an ideal leader of the party. The criteria for the election of leadership within the structures of the DA are still consistent with the racist posture and character of the party.

The truth is that Lindiwe Mazibuko and Maimane are not conversant enough with the objective realities the majority of our people in the urban and rural settlements across our country find themselves in. The reason why the DA has advertised the post for a suitable candidate with the required set of a criteria to be black enough to lead the party into the future.

The set racist criteria is fundamentally a hypothesis of the true values and traditions our new rainbow nation seeks to represent. Racial chauvinism is still the cornerstone of the overall recruitment strategy of the DA. Black people are considered into the leadership positions to camouflage the racial composition of the party.

The historic leadership core of the party does not comprehend the scientific notion of the necessity of the new to be born out of the old. Therefore the DA has become irrelevant to the new realities of our democratic dispensation from Apartheid colonial rule to the construction of our new national democratic society. The old cannot be born out of the new.

At the same time we need to appreciate the realities that the process of nation building and formation is the most complex. Our rainbow nation is still confronted by the daunting legacy of national oppression and exploitation which has become to be the most salient reality of our socio economic superstructure.

The fact that the leadership core of the DA today still negates the most profound scientific principle that colour is the superficial cover of the insight human, is a living testimony that it was never to be easy to give birth to a new society. It was never easy to give birth to the new out of the womb of the socio economic contradictions of the Apartheid colonial past.

In other words our democratic breakthrough was not the end but the beginning of the new forms of struggle to achieve our the objectives of our national democratic revolution. Our theory has always enriched us with the necessary tools of analysis to understand the interrelation of the principle of cause and effect.

Our collective leadership across the spectra of the political, socio and economic terrain of our country has the most profound task to accomplish. Our immediate tasks is to rally the whole of our people behind the project of the reconstruction and development of our country.

Our foremost important task is to erode from our mainstream society the ugly features of the Apartheid historical past. South African must allow contribute meaningfully towards the process of the reconstruction of a non racial, non sexist, democratic and prosperous society.

Our greatest achievement was the adoption of our democratic constitution which has become the cornerstone of our new rainbow nation. It will be in the best interest of our country and the future generations to come, to endure that we consolidate the gains of our freedom.

Our struggle for democracy, against oppression and exploitation, against racism and fascism is a struggle for the liberation of the whole of our society. The DA has become an outcast in the mist of our common cause to build a non racial, non sexist, democratic and prosperous society.

The ANC is the only political formation which is the true representative of the wishes and aspirations of the overwhelming majority of the people of our country. Our people should therefore rebuke any futile attempt by the forces doom opposed to the transformation of our country,  to undermine our collective effort to build a new society.

Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to the republic of Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP writing this article on his personal capacity.

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