South Africa has some eight million whites, five million of whom are of voting age. Overwhelmingly these people vote for the DA, with a few spread across smaller parties like the Freedom Front Plus.

Over four million votes were cast for the DA in the 2014 elections, with about one million from coloureds and blacks combined. A quick extrapolation of these figures gives us an estimated 150,000 blacks having voted DA. The DA has extremely eager voters who have no apathy at all, since theirs is a “fight back” campaign, whilst the majority of ANC supporters do not bother with voting for reasons of complacency or apathy.

In its strategic deviation, the DA praises Nelson Mandela and pledges to destroy his beloved ANC in his honour. Whilst DA leader Mmusi Maimane, in his victory speech, mentioned Mandela more than once, he did not mention the DA stalwarts like Mrs Helen Suzman or Zach de Beer. This deviation is not permanent and is designed to pull as many blacks as possible into the DA liberal politics.

The take-away from the DA Congress is that they will not shy away from dressing the party as predominantly black when in reality it is not. This stage management may work in the short term, with the ultimate test being 2016 Local Government Elections.

Cultural appropriations

This dress-up and stage management is carefully orchestrated propaganda where struggle symbols, songs and terminology are used to make believe a black liberation movement. Having an identity of its own has eluded the DA. The congress failed to fix this too, as struggle songs and dance were put on stage with the floor manager continuously heard over the speakers telling black youths who sat on stage to wave placards for television shots and the like. Whites in the Congress were hidden from camera to paint a veneer of a black majority party until voting results came and showed who was boss.

At the core of it, there will still be no deliberate affirmative action to redress the imbalances, there will not be a black empowerment policy, state-owned companies are to be sold off and exchange controls will be completely removed for the benefit of the moneyed.

The DA’s cultural appropriation of struggle symbols is shameless. During the struggle days, the PAC had its own songs and symbols; Azapo too. The use of distinct ANC symbols by the DA and in particular Maimane is without the understanding of these symbols, but aims to create a familiar environment for blacks.

The ANC’s cultural appropriation by the DA further reinforces the idea that the powerful minority can do anything it wants as a dominant group. It moves from Apartheid times, where the National Party exploited the culture of the less privileged groups for their individual gain.

When Maimane shouts, “Amandla!” (power to the people), a socialist slogan, he strips himself naked, and his scant understanding of politics, the struggle history, experiences and traditions are laid bare. There is no reconciliation between liberal politics and socialism. A room full of the previously advantaged class (although hidden from cameras) screaming “amandla” left me confused – is it the minority wanting to claim power (amandla) back from the majority?

Taking the ANC’s intellectual property, traditions, knowledge and cultural expressions started with Maimane, and it seems as though Helen Zille decided to take private classes on a variety of songs and culture since 2008.

Cultural appropriation, like all that blacks lost when land was appropriated from them, comes with arrogance. These include use of another’s cultural dance “toyi toyi”, dress, songs etc. Many of these were designed at the battlefield in the frontline states as freedom fighters confronted real danger. Zille, aided by Maimane, as though it’s a joke or a play, uses the toyi toyi.

This use is harmful to the source communities who composed and designed these cultural expressions during war, hunger, fear and emotional battles. These are sacred cultural experiences, not designed to be appropriated for votes and an electoral power grab.

In most places, cultural appropriations involve members of a powerful class, a dominant class, “borrowing” from the cultures of the less privileged. Often, this is done in the open, displaying the power of one against the other.

The use of struggle songs by the DA is no different to walking around in blackface.

The actions of Maimane are only designed to exploit and give the DA struggle credentials it does not have by associating it with struggle cultural experiences.

As Maimane appropriates this culture without meaning, he reinforces the stereotype of blacks as people who jump around and sing for the entertainment of whites. Indeed, the South African advertising industry holds that view, as blacks dance for canned fish, maize meal, bread and cars in TV adverts.

Here is a lesson: as Maimane “toyi toyis”, he makes the moves of the ANC’s armed wing MK; as he adapts a struggle song to add his name on it, he likens himself to those who were imprisoned, tortured, exiled and letter bombed – our Struggle heroes. As Maimane says “amandla”, he is using a rallying cry of resistance against Apartheid and minority rule (still located in the DA). “Amandla”, within the broader liberation movements, was used exclusively by the ANC, whilst PAC and others used other cries like “ilizwe” or “mayibuye”.

Whilst the DA is in strategic deviation in appeasing blacks with song and dance, its ultimate goal is to capture the state using cultural appropriations and all other means to restore the minority hegemony over the majority.

The losers will be the dancers.

At the core of it, Apartheid is just something of the past and not the present, the DA claims. But is it? DM