Bruin-ou.om columnist and frontline social commentator $Force asks the question that is on everybody's minds regarding the DA's appointment of a majority White male provincial cabinet. Those most affected would be the Coloured folk in Cape Town who have given her the authority. Helen Zille's response is that her party is truly non-racial and not governed by quotas. By inference, the implication is that there are no capable non-white leaders within the DA ranks or within the province. Our man on the ground $Force gives us the details. - Ed.
Have Coloured people really become non-racial or have we just given up on ourselves and opted for the non-confrontational path of least resistance to the latest developments?
That has been the question on my mind simmering below the boiling controversy of personal attacks between Helen Zille and different structures of the ANC.
Last week, when the news broke that Zille’s provincial cabinet (with the exception of herself) was not only all male but also 60% white, I immediately started asking out loud if there is possibly a deficiency of Coloureds and Blacks within the DA ranks capable of being selected for those positions.
The storm now starting to blow over, I had a chance to gauge the thoughts and feelings of not only fellow Coloureds who voted for the DA but also those who did not.
I was surprised that with all this fuss non-DA voters were kicking up (most of the noise has been raised by non-DA members), there is a high level of acceptance amongst DA supporters regarding the demographic make-up of the Western Cape provincial cabinet.
It has become a non-issue to most of them, or so it seems from where I'm standing.
Upon probing this matter, I was met with intelligent sounding defenses of “letting the best man get the job and let them get on with it”. It was however striking that following these, one could not get anybody to actually name any MEC and give any information on them, with the exception of Lennit Max, (one of the three Coloureds in Zille’s cabinet) who happens to be in the news often for the wrong reasons.
Then there were also those that did not know about the composition of the cabinet, yet either immediately came out in Zille’s defense or just simply said they did not really care as they trusted Zille to pick the right people.
Of all the people I spoke to, only one DA supporter was more than a little concerned about the issue and expressed a feeling of betrayal.
It seems clear that it is mostly people who did not vote for the DA that are passionately opposed to her selection of MEC’s.
Have Coloured people really become non-racial or have we just given up on ourselves to become passive, non-confrontational voting fodder?
Conversations I had over the past few days with many DA supporters who are not opposed to the DA provincial cabinet selection, revealed something that is really scary.
There is a certain word for which I had to act immune to upon hearing it more often than usual these past few days.
We certainly can’t attribute the acceptance of Zille’s cabinet to non-racialism when so many of the people I spoke to blatantly said that they would rather have more white people working under Zille as they are “gatvol of bruinmense en k@ff!rs wat alles opmors”. (Translation: "Fed up of Coloureds and k@ff!rs" – (derogatory term for blacks) – "that mess things up" ).
The people of the Western Cape have made their choices and we should all hope that the people that Zille has selected will do their jobs in the interest of all the people of the WC. Quite a tall order as the socio-economic hierarchy in the WC still closely resembles the old supposedly dead Apartheid racial hierarchy.
Unless the actual DA voters themselves oppose her cabinet selection, the rest of the people should perhaps give Zille and her cabinet a chance to prove their worth.
More importantly I ask what can we do to change the apartheid instilled mindset of our people whereby “White is still right”, and the word “k@ff!r” is still unapologetically used by Coloured people here - it disturbs and disgusts me!
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