NEWS & ANALYSIS

The DA's a catalogue of the worst form of racism

Justice Piitso says opposition's rent a black strategy has become a cancer to objective of building a national democratic society

The Democratic Alliance is appearing in a new form to make the black people of our country its voting fodder

The past twenty years of our democracy has proven that the DA is a catalogue of the worst form of racism in the history of humanity. The twenty years period of our democracy is a testimony that the party is incorrigible to the realities of our transition.

We are however confident that the South African working class understand the realities that the present phase of our transition to democracy is a theatre of an intense struggle. The essence is that our democratic breakthrough was not the end but the beginning of new forms of protracted struggle for socio economic transformation of our country.

Twenty years of our democratic dispensation has been a theatre of fierce contested struggle between our revolutionary forces and those opposed to fundamental change. Our struggle for liberation has reached a decisive moment of a no turing point. Is either we have to submit ourselves or to take forward our struggle for revolutionary change.

During the era of the vicious Apartheid system, the racist white monopoly regime failed to achieve its fundamental strategy of perpetuating its domination through the imposition of the black homeland system. The system was an attempt to divide and weaken the unity of our people and therefore to interrupt the struggle of our people to freedom.

The unity of our movement and our people made it difficult for the Apartheid regime to sustain its strategic choice of sponsoring black on black violence, co-opting some of our people into the system of black town councils and tricameral parliament and also to infiltrate our democratic movement in general. Over the years of our struggle against Apartheid, the paramount unity of our people defeated the tactics of the enemy of our revolution.

The contradictions between the oppressive and exploitative white monopoly capital and the formerly disadvantaged majority of our people is a historical question at the core of our national democratic revolution. The immediate task of our struggle is to resolve the contradictions of poverty, disease and underdevelopment. 

These contradictions cannot be resolved shamelessly by the Democratic Alliance changing its character and form. A superficial change in the appearance of the racial composition of the party is not a guarantee for a qualitative change. 

At the core of the offensive racist posture to change its character and form is a rent a black strategy. Its theoretical formulation is to decorate the leadership echelons of the party with opportunistic faces such as those of Musi Maimane and Lindiwe Mazibuku.

The rent a black strategy has become a cancer to our overall common objective to build a national democratic society. The strategy is to ensure that the Apartheid socio economic ownership patterns remain the bedrock of our mainstream society.

There is no doubt that Madam Hellen Zille and her white racist cabal are committed irrevocably to a coarse aimed at undermining the objectives of our national democratic revolution. The strategy is essentially an antithesis of the fundamental values and principles our constitution seeks to represent.

Even if the the membership of the DA remains to be a predominantly white, the events of the recent past weeks of our election campaign have proven that only rented black faces are the ones attending its rallies and door to door campaigns across the country.The events are illustrative that the party is still imbued in the horrendous racist politics of the past.

Our task is to dismantle the Apartheid neo colonial state and all its manifestations. We find ourselves in the mist of the pockets of Apartheid cupboards that are still filled with skeletons which have overtime became the principal feature of our society.

Therefore the South African working class must understand that voting for the DA is the same as ordering neo colonialism of a special type back into the mainstream of our society. Our freedom came at a cost of an immeasurable human sacrifice that many of our unsung heroes and heroines of our struggle had to endure

The 1994 democratic breakthrough was a paradigm of justice against a brutal system declared by the international community a crime against humanity. We dedicate the victory of the common struggle of our people against the vicious Apartheid system to the heroes and heroines of our struggle. 

The only way to guarantee a better future for the overwhelming majority of our people is to vote for the ANC. We are the only party with the necessary capacity to lead the struggle for the transformation of our country into the future. The ANC represents the wishes and aspirations of the overwhelming majority of our people.

The South African working class must vote for the ANC in the forthcoming elections in memory of Cde Nelson Mandela, OR Tambo, Moses Kotane, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Lilian Ngoyi, Dora Tamana, Raymond Mhlaba, Joe Slovo,  Lawrence Phokanoka, Ruth First, Flag Boshielo, Vuyisile Mini, Kgosigadi Madinoge, Peter Nchabeleng, Chris Dlamini,  Solomon Mahlangu, Banny Molokoane, Peter Mokaba, Tito Manthatha, Ephraim Mogale and many of our unsung heroes and heroines of our struggle.

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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