Mmusi Maimane struggles to answer why there is a lack of participation by his party’s white constituents in certain kinds of protests the party organises.

After a succinct, provocative and somewhat self-aggrandising speech, Maimane spoke to moderator Clement Manyathela, at The Gathering, about the work his party is doing to fight corruption and promote democracy in the South Africa.

The party still struggles to fight the perception that it is a white party. And Maimane has taken it as a personal mission to change that perspective. And true to his plans, there has been a growth in its black membership since he took over from Helen Zille.

At The Gathering, the leader of the DA was at pains to emphasise the diverse nature of the party. This comes after his efforts seemingly being cut short and undermined by controversial comments from party leaders with regards to race. The dark cloud of Helen Zille’s colonisation tweets still hangs over the DA and its leader who still continues in his attempts to reinvent the party.

For the duration of the interview, Maimane was at his best. He spoke of the ANC’s inability to root out corruption, the DA’s plans to streamline state enterprises, demonopolise power and deregulate the private sector. He exudes impressive eloquence when speaking on foreign direct investment and the DA’s excellent performance in the Cape Town municipality. His was a speech of his party’s achievements and the promise to perform better if voted into power.

And yet, the question that made Maimane stutter was on the involvement or rather lack thereof of white people in certain types of protests that the DA organises. Protests for unemployment and basic services were cited as events where the party’s white electorate do not attend. It was only the #ZumaMustFall march and the protest at the Guptas’ home that saw whites coming out in their numbers.

Manyathela remarked on how it seems whites participate on the streets for certain types of issues. The DA leader insisted that whites are a part of these marches. When asked how many come out, he said there is no use stating numbers because there will never be an acceptable number of whites that the public will accept or approve of.

The critique, however, also arises from whites’ large participation in the Black Monday marches, though they were not organised by the DA. The marches saw thousands of white South Africans coming out to the streets, marching to stop the killing of white farmers.

Though often drowned out by State Capture scandals, public maladministration and unemployment, the issue of race, representation and privilege are a significant undercurrent in South African politics.

Maimane has a long way to go to solve South Africa’s problems. One might say his party’s challenges are his testing ground to determine if he is up to the big league of national politics. DM

Photo: DA leader Mmusi Maimane at The Gathering in Johannesburg: Photo: Daniel Born