LETTER: Multiparty charter must take drastic measures

It is almost nine months since your publication wrote about the prospects of the DA in this year’s election. We’ve seen the multiparty charter for South Africa being formed as the brainchild of the DA.

I think the charter is a combination of people who want to preserve the status quo. There is nothing new that it proposes; it only hopes to scare South Africans about the calamity it would be if the ANC and EFF win.

It is a myth that the Western Cape is the best-run province in South Africa and a far-fetched dream. The main problem facing the country is not only poverty, but also inequality. In the latter respect the Western Cape is the same as the whole country.

I don’t hear tangible programmes from the charter about the way to change this. In South Africa we need wealth creation and wealth transfer and you don’t see that in the Western Cape. The only thing the DA brags about is 95% of jobs created in minor forms of labour, in which even educated people do mundane tasks that pay them little money.

I feel sad that I was never part of the formation of the charter, because the black political parties that are there seem to have been bussed in to endorse the DA’s propaganda, without contributing much to the conversation on how to take the country forward.

To promote their propaganda both the ANC and EFF have filled stadiums. What is the charter’s counter to that? Or is it only meetings at heritage venues?

Think-tank surveys don’t amount to votes. The challenge of the charter is that most member parties appeal to the same constituencies. If it is to come closer to winning, drastic measures need to be taken, and they need to be taken now.

Until some of the challenges I’ve mentioned are addressed, the future is bleak.

Mawande Given Gqotso
Community development worker and founder of the African Renewal Movement

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