Tags:
Journalism of Courage
It is rare for the leader of a political party to appear on the platform at a rivals congress,even more so to be welcomed with a standing ovation. But that is what Patricia de Lille pictured below of South Africas Independent Democrats ID received at a recent meeting of the Democratic Alliance DA,the countrys main opposition party,when she indicated that the two parties were close to clinching a formal agreement to co-operate at next years municipal elections. This,she said,would be an engagement ahead of a full marriage. That could be consummated only at the next general election,in 2014,as South Africas constitution in effect bars mergers between polls; MPs who change their party allegiance automatically lose their seats.
The merger will barely affect national politics except to shore up the DA in the Western Cape,the only one of nine provinces not controlled by the African National Congress ANC. Nationwide the ID is tiny: in the last general election,in 2009,it got less than 1 per cent of the vote,returning four MPs. But the merger would give the new entity a chance of doing well in the Northern Cape. Its backing is biggest among mixed-race coloureds,who make up about 9 per cent of the 49m South Africans. Ms de Lille is a coloured former trade unionist and a doughty anti-corruption campaigner.
The liberal DA will not make bigger inroads unless it changes its image as a party for whites and other minorities. So it is also talking to COPE. An electoral alliance of the DA,the ID and COPE would have a bit more credibility in the black townships than the DA alone. Helen Zille,the DAs leader,insists that voters want South African politics to be an open contest of ideas and values,rather than driven by race: a fine aspiration but a far cry from reality.
The Economist Newspaper Limited 2010
