DA does not humiliate black people

Business Day, June 2013

So Mr Diseko (BD, “DA prefers pale males”, 4/6/13) feels that “only  people like the DA’s Gavin Lewis can understand “ the apparent dichotomy between the DA’s adherence to non –racialism (an ANC priority too in the mists of time), and the preponderance of “pale males” in the Western Cape government. I do not speak for the Western Cape government, but let me explain how it works for the DA in Gauteng.

 Whenever I am in the townships and squatter camps, with their bucket toilets (if they are lucky) or long drops, with their RDP houses sold illegally by ANC councillors to people with the cash to jump the housing queue, I have never yet encountered a black voter asking about the likely gender and racial bean counting of the new government that so obsesses Mr Diseko. On the contrary, they could not care less. All they want is a clean, honest, effective state that provides them with   their basic needs, such as access to clean water and affordable power. They could not care if these services, now so remote under ANC rule, are provided by blue faced green Martians with purple spots. They are sick and tired of corruption and bad government and, increasingly, they want a change for the better. Watch the 2014 elections and you will see how far this is felt.  Or is Mr Diseko also uneasy about democracy?

 Black people are not stupid. They want what you have – like every thinking voter whether male or female.  You can choose your government on a demographic basis which requires two and a half coloureds, three quarters of an Indian, and two thirds of a women. We in the DA want a better life for all , finish and klaar. This is regardless of their colour or gender or ethnicity, or country of origin, and we will have blacks in pour government because  they are our brothers and sisters and we cannot run anything without their involvement. But we will never humiliate them  in the way that you do. And to excuse the premier’s warnings of a “wit gevaar” is simply to accept outright racism. Mr Diseko may be happy with that; I am not.

Dr Gavin Lewis

DA MPL Gauteng Legislature