Keyword: Democratic Alliance

The DA's Economic Plan: The Shift from Socialising the Economy to Liberalising It

Picture: The Democratic Alliance/Flickr Saliem Fakir - The Democratic Alliance (DA) released its “Working for Change, Working for Jobs” economic plan for South Africa a week ago. Where the ANC’s economic plan lacks a united front and coherence - as demonstrated in a recent ANC policy conference - the DA hopes to capture the public imagination with its own image for the future and by taking the gap created by a faltering ANC. Where the ANC is mesmerised by the virtues of the state, the DA is mesmerised by the virtues of the...

Helen Zille's Hopeless Handling of Cape Gang Violence

Picture: The Democratic Alliance/Flickr Anna Majavu - With the DA beginning their campaign to wrest control of another few provinces from the ANC in the 2014 elections, the impoverished residents of Cape Town’s Lavender Hill and Hanover Park have become the latest convenient political footballs. Like other so-called “Coloured” communities - Delft, Grassy Park, Ocean View and Bishop Lavis - Lavender Hill and Hanover Park remain derelict ghettoes, which appear to be stuck in a long forgotten era. A part-privatised leaky...

The Youth Wage Subsidy: Mixing Farce with Force

Picture: The Democratic Alliance/Flickr Leonard Gentle - The spectacle of the blows between a Democratic Alliance-led crowd and COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) would have been the stuff of farce if it weren’t so tragically unedifying. The DA has every right to march and be “provocative”. COSATU’s response betrays its own hard-won struggles in the past for the right to march, assemble and protest. This was no kristalnacht or fascist street gang about to storm the workers’ movement. This was a DA...

Talking about Race Without Ending Racism

Picture: www.popularcritic.com Anna Majavu - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has been campaigning furiously for the past two months against the assertion that Cape Town is racist, after this was again thrust into the public spotlight at the beginning of the year by acclaimed singer Simphiwe Dana’s tweet that “no matter how famous/ rich you are, you’re still a 2nd class citizen if you’re Black in Cape Town”. After Dana asked DA leader Helen Zille for proof of the change she often trumpets, Zille responded,...

In Search of a Bulwark against the Steady Drift from Democracy

Picture: socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com Richard Pithouse - Jacob Zuma has often been presented as an avuncular man who needs to stop dithering and get on with the business of governing. But the trajectory of the ANC under Zuma is actually very clear. From the fascination with the authoritarian capitalism of China to the return to brutal methods of policing, the nature of the attacks on the media, the judiciary and civil society, the escalation of the powers and role of the intelligence agencies and the increasingly brazen repression of grassroots...

Battle of the Egos at Rondebosch Common

Picture: Democratic Alliance/Flickr Charlene Houston - There are never any winners when people and their real issues are sacrificed at the altar of politics. Sadly, this is what took place in the battle for Rondebosch Common, which could also be referred to as the “battle of the egos”. We live in a time of shared awareness and a shift in global developments - many people have realised that regardless of which political party is in power, whether it’s the ANC or the DA, their material conditions remain the same. Ordinary...