New face of South Africa's opposition
New opposition leader Helen Zille faces the difficult task of winning over voters aligned with the dominant ANC.
from the May 21, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Uniting a fractured opposition
In a way, Zille's greatest challenge will not be the almighty ANC, but keeping the fractious DA – a mixture of liberal, moderate, and deeply conservative whites, mixed-race "Coloureds" and Asians, and a scattering of black voters who are put off by the ANC's socialist ideology – together. At party conferences these various groups clash as much with each other as they do with the ANC at election time.
The difficulty, many political observers say, is to find a positive message that will unite this base, while reaching out to other South Africans who are starting to see the ANC's failure to live up to its promise.
"South African politics are not just about race, they are about identity, and thus everyone identifies with the ANC," says Tim Hughes, a senior researcher at the South African Institute for International Affairs in Cape Town. Demographics, with nearly 80 percent of South Africans voting along racial lines for the ANC, mean that time is working against the DA in the long run. "That means the Democratic Alliance is not going anywhere except backwards."
Capitalizing on ANC failures
But politics is not just about winning, says Mr. Hughes. It's about putting up a good enough fight to change policy at the national level. If Zille's DA reaches out beyond its normal white voting base to South Africans of other races who are growing disenchanted with one-party rule, it could still have a powerful effect.
"I've known Helen a long time," says Hughes. "She's smart enough to know that the DA has a diminishing vote, a diminishing influence. So at a minimum, the first step is not just to gather up the white vote, but to expand the support base between opposition parties.
"If her vote is not just 15 percent but up to 20 or 25 percent, then she'll project a more credible party," says Hughes. "Helen's position is, 'I did it in Cape Town, I think I can do it on a national level, too.' "
Running a city like Cape Town may not seem like such a big deal. With relatively peaceful race relations, dependable shipping and tourism industries, and a landscape often compared to San Francisco or Italy's Amalfi Coast, Cape Town is a cakewalk compared with the rugby-scrum of politics in a city like Johannesburg.
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