Zugzwang! – Oudtshoorn Online
Zugzwang!	Nowhere to go; nowhere to hide for DA
Drewan Baird. Oudtshoorn. 17 November 2013. 20h30. Zugzwang is a chess term for a board situation where any move weakens the position.
I pity Helen Zille.
On Thursday Zille said, at a Black Management Forum debate in Sandton, “You’re arguing for rapid paths of promotion for disadvantaged South Africans. We say we support that on the basis of offering opportunities.”
She continued, “[We are] ensuring people use that opportunity and the next door opens, and the next door opens and the next door opens.”
Zille said DA Parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko did this very well.
She explained how Mazibuko had worked her way up in the party but admitted she would not have got to where she was at this stage if she was not black.
“I can tell you, if she was white, no matter how brilliant she was, she would have not been the leader of the opposition when she was less than 31 [years old],” Zille said.
“So obviously the fact that she was black was important… But if she was just black and not highly intelligent and not highly articulate and not a very good politician we wouldn’t have put her in there no matter what her colour.”
The same went for DA Gauteng premier candidate Mmusi Maimane. Zille said the DA had the most diverse leadership of any party in the country.
Tim Flack, Western Cape Organiser for the South African National Defence Union, and a chap I follow on twitter, at the risk of social media paternalism, for his “fresh” and somewhat ingenuous approach to social issues, says: “Here Aunty Helen says it loud and clear. I don’t like this at all.”
Is she trying to get more black vote or is she starting to feel the black pressure?
Wanting the vote. So much for equality. All are equal, for Zille some just more than others it seems.
For me I’d have considered joining them, now, not at all. I won’t go anywhere. So ill look somewhere else.
Its sad for someone like myself that would like to get into politics. Its discouraging. Guess I’ll look elsewhere!
So Zille says, basically if Lindiwe Mazibuko was white no matter how brilliant she was, she’d not be party leader. And I must vote DA?
That statement on its own tells me, I as a white guy won’t get anywhere in the leadership of the DA. Because I’m white.
The DA is a retail outlet unable to stock the products most consumers demand. It is, incredibly, as simple as that. ZugZwang. Period.
If Zille moves away from the DA’s liberal roots – even though those roots are continued to be tainted by Nats – her position weakens because the consumer support base trembles, and target consumers become skeptical. And where else can she go?
She can embrace all of the ANC’s policies and simply punt that the DA can implement such policies more expediently. But that, frankly, will insult most target consumers.
Tim du Plessis condemns the DA to political Siberia in today’s Rapport…
DA is ge-‘reset’ ná ‘vliegramp’
So ’n klompie jare gelede was daar ’n TV-advertensie waarin ’n rugbyspeler-javel met die bal hardloop om onder die pale te gaan druk.
Voor hy oor die lyn gaan, wuif hy met so ’n simpel glimlag na die paviljoen. Net om kadoef! teen die regoppaal vas te hol en reg agteroor te slaan. Dié prentjie som nogal op wat nou met die DA oor regstellende aksie gebeur het. Verblind deur eie propaganda dat hy in 2014 gaan deurbreek, het hy die yslike slaggat genaamd “ANC-raspolitiek” heeltemal misgekyk.
Jy kan ook sê die DA is op sy plek gesit – deur homself. Nou is ons weer net herinner: Die DA is ’n party van opposisie, nie van regering nie. Hy regeer in die Wes-Kaap danksy die provinsie se unieke demografie.
Dit beteken nie die DA is ’n vrot party nie. Glad nie. Dit is bes moontlik die beste opposisie wat Suid-Afrika ooit gehad het. Maar dít alleen maak hom geen alternatiewe regering nie. ’n Party wat dink hy kan met gemompelde, lomp bewoorde standpunte die ANC met raspolitiek troef, kan kwalik ’n derduiwel van ’n land soos Suid-Afrika regeer. Jy moet slimmer wees. Ek glo alles wat ek lees en sien wat beduie hoe teenproduktief en ondoeltreffend regstellende aksie en SEB is: Dis omgekeerde, Verwoerdiaanse apartheid, dit bevoordeel dieselfde ou kalante oor en oor, dit verloën nie-rassigheid, dit skep nuwe ongelykhede en, les bes, dit perpetueer ’n ons-en-hulle-dinamiek by die werk.
Maar dit beteken nie regstellende aksie en SEB se dae is getel nie. Daarvoor is verreweg die meeste swart kiesers eenvoudig emosioneel te verknog aan regstellende aksie en SEB. Al skrei dit teen logika en gesonde verstand. Dié mense is vir rasionele argumente oor die afskaffing van SEB en regstellende aksie so doof soos wat Afrikaners was vir die ewe ra­sionele argument dat apartheid sleg was vir Afrikaans en wit mense gevonnis het met die las van verdrukkers.
Gaan kyk gerus hoe swart ontleders en kommentators gereageer het op wat Helen Zille die DA se “vliegramp” genoem het. Ook dié wat gewoonlik genadeloos op die ANC neerkom oor vrot regering, korrupsie en sowat alles wat verkeerd is, ­Jacob Zuma se sogenaamde ­clever blacks. Hulle het deur die bank hul steun herbetuig vir regstellende aksie en SEB. Die DA sal bly sukkel by swart kiesers omdat dit nie in sy DNS is om rasgegronde “regstelling” vir die “onregte van die verlede” te begryp nie, was die deurlopende tema. Dié mense is nie ANC-lakeie nie, inteendeel.
Die DA se “vliegramp” het ’n ander groot waarheid onderstreep: Die dinamiek vir die verandering wat móét kom en sál kom, setel binne-in die regerende alliansie. Ver weg van die DA af.
Die kreeftegang in Cosatu, diepe en wye ontevredenheid met ANC-korrupsie en wanbestuur, ideologiese tweespalt/faksiegevegte, stygende verleentheid oor Zuma, die opkoms van ’n nuwe generasie swart kiesers – hiérin setel die eint­like politieke dinamiek. Dis al voorheen gesê, maar hier is dit weer: Die belangrikste proses nou is die een wat daartoe sal lei dat die ANC die bewind verloor. Eendag, hopelik vroeër as later. Die proses om ’n alternatiewe regerende party vir die ANC te vorm, ’n proses waarin die DA-“vliegramp” na ’n geringe episode sal lyk, is sekondêr. Die DA kan gerus wees die vliegramp sal spoedig vergete wees. Dit het bloot sy reset-knoppie gedruk. As ’n party wat regstellende aksie en SEB ?“doeltreffender” kan toepas régtig vir jou belangrik is, kyk eerder na Cope, Agang of die UDM. Hulle is reguit daaroor: Dit bly.
Hulle is nie belas met die DA se wroegings oor sy liberale wortels nie. Hulle het ’n beter kans as die DA om “beter” regstellende aksie en SEB verby swart kiesers te kry. As jy wil stem vir goeie opposisie: DA, heelpad.
A vote for the DA is equal to a vote for any party not alligned with the ANC – the only effect such vote has is to chip some support away from the ANC. This should be done relentlessly, in order to find and push some re-set button in Luthuli House and get the ANC back on track to implement the thoroughgoing principles of the Freedom Charter in the absence of opportunistic greed and resulting vengeance.
But a vote for the DA, or for Agang, or for the EFF… frankly even for the FF+ or the effete Cope, will gain no more than a simple chip off the ANC support Everest.
Such an opposition vote will not bring any opposition party even close to power.
I am an opposition voter. I always have been an opposition voter. I will continue to be an opposition voter.
Wherever you draw your cross next year, my longsuffering readers, vote opposition… but realise the force and effect of that vote. And, especially, realise what that vote does not and can not mean.
← “Social Injustice!”Answers please, honourable DA councillors! →	One thought on “Zugzwang!”	Les Dyason says:	2013/11/18 at 06:43	Alliance master matchmaker Helen Zille faces her biggest challenge yet.
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