COLONIALISM DEBATE
We need to look deeper into Helen Zille’s tweets
‘What we’ve seen, from across the spectrum, is a barrage of abuse, none of it engaging the substance of Zille’s analysis’
As we watch the very public fight for the soul of the DA, how atuned are we to the less overt but more important fight for the country’s soul? I’m not sure how many people would miss Helen Zille’s (combative, principled, cerebral) style of politicking; I’m pretty certain though that we’ll do ourselves serious harm if we miss the point of her latest provocation. The majority view among my (left-liberal) friends is that the premier messed up badly by saying that colonialism was not unqualifiedly awful. They believe, and it’s probably true, that this conclusion will offend a large number of black people and so have a serious adverse impact on her party’s electoral prospects. The tweets were demeaning and hurtful, they insist, and her axing or resignation is the only way to prevent large-scale voter estrangement. The practical logic is plain, in a party set on power. What also needs to be considered, though, is the effect of this blood-letting on the national political dialogue. A fract...
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