The DA congress in Tshwane at the weekend attempted to strike a compromise on the issue of diversity, a kind of code for SA’s most acute issue of political debate, race. The stakes were extremely high. The issue has two important dimensions for the party because its growth depends on becoming more of a home to black voters, which would probably be more likely if it explicitly supported an ANC-like quota system. On the other hand, adopting that kind of approach would wrench the party away from its own declared principles and also the principles of classical liberalism. What the party came up with constitutes a compromise between the two poles. The party constitution was amended twice, once to insert the phrase: "The party will continue to take active steps to promote and advance diversity in its own ranks." Later in the constitution, it added to its existing commitment to reject "unfair discrimination on any grounds and the redress of past discrimination", but "without recourse to ri...
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