LETTER: What the DA needs to do to win

“Will 2024 be the DA’s Year?” (Cover Story, March 30-April 5) has much to recommend it, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. The DA leadership continues to be a self-congratulating clique of whites wrapped in the warm blanket of West European liberal tradition.

The party needs leadership that’s focused on creating political and social policy that will appeal to the majority of voters, who are black and in rural areas. The example of effective, honest leadership in the Western Cape is not enough.

If the DA really wants to be our next government, it should form a committee that is more representative, and hold private, in-depth discussions with those who have left the party — such as Lindiwe Mazibuko, Herman Mashaba and Mmusi Maimane. They know what it means to be black in South Africa, and will have an infinitely better understanding of what the DA should be doing to oust the ANC.

Honesty and efficiency in government are not enough to attract the majority of voters. It is probably too late for the DA to aim at a controlling majority in parliament; it should instead look to defeat a possible ANC/EFF coalition with one of its own.

To this end, a campaign in local languages, in rural and urban areas, should be undertaken to highlight the realities in which people live, and the ANC failures that make it so.

Robert Stone
Linden

The FM welcomes concise letters from readers. They can be sent to fmmail@fm.co.za