We are just months out from our national elections, and campaign fever is spreading.

It’s only going to get worse, with the name-calling and mudslinging and race-baiting set to further divide South Africa along political lines as we edge closer towards May.

Julius Malema has made it clear that the EFF and the DA aren’t tjommies any longer, but perhaps this week’s most stinging rebuke of the DA comes from former councillor and member of the Cape Town mayoral committee, Brett Herron.

Herron is now the secretary-general of Good, Patricia de Lillie’s breakaway party, so he has a vested interest in undermining the DA, but the sentiments he expressed in a TimesLIVE opinion piece align with what many former party members have been saying.

Here are some excerpts from Herron’s piece:

The problem with the DA is that it is basically a PR machine that settles on values and policy positions based on polling and focus groups. It doesn’t authentically believe in anything. In the process it constantly exposes itself as dishonest and schizophrenic.

When the DA campaigns in black areas it says things it thinks black people want to hear.

When the DA hosts meetings in white areas it changes the message out of fear of alienating its core supporters. What an insult to the vast majority of white South Africans who want to see our country succeed in a socially and economically just and sustainable way…

I resigned from the DA because it is a hoax.

Its leadership, and many of its public representatives, can recite the printed values and latest campaign mantra when they go through the candidate selection process, or make a speech. But they don’t actually hold those values, nor regard policies and election promises as real commitments.

The most recent high-profile resignation came from DA MP Gwen Ngwenya, who resigned as head of policy with a letter that seemed to back up what Herron has said above.

Herron also speaks about the party’s ouster of de Lille, which turned into a very public mudslinging match that was a shambles from start to finish, and finishes his takedown with a simple message:

A vote for the DA is a waste of a vote. It lacks leadership and the courage to lead this country.

At this point, one has to ask – who the hell should we vote for, then?

Voting for the Good Party is seen as a waste of a vote by many, and over and over again, the mantra of ‘the lesser of two evils’ is trotted out by those looking ahead to May.

It’s what the DA seems to be campaigning on, sending out another round of fearmongering SMSs this past weekend, so they obviously think that’s the best way forward.

Over on the Daily Maverick, columnist Ivo Vegter seems to be saying what many South Africans are thinking, in a piece headlined “Why I’ll hold my nose and vote DA“.

He’s clearly on board with Herron’s assessment of the DA, but back to the ‘lesser of two evils’:

The line “we won’t be as corrupt as the ANC” seems like a terribly weak reason to vote for the DA. But in the absence of a coherent and principled policy stance, it isn’t. It’s enough…

The ANC cannot be rehabilitated. Corruption and cronyism are woven into its very fabric. Even if Cyril Ramaphosa is sincere in his desire to root out the graft of the Zuma era, I’m not convinced he has the power to do so. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of politicians, several of them with seats in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet, will have to be prosecuted. I don’t think the ANC will tolerate the brutal purge that is required, nor do I think Ramaphosa’s precarious support will survive it…

We might not be sure what the DA’s policies are, but we can be certain that the ANC’s policies are harming the country, will continue to do so and would do so even without the endemic corruption in government.

Then there’s the stuff that the DA should probably be touting more actively, like their clean audits and good governance in metros that they govern:

The Free State received not a single clean audit, down from 13% in 2016/17. The North West held steady at 5%. Limpopo also received 5%, down from 10% the year before. KwaZulu-Natal managed 12%, down from 17%. The Eastern Cape received 19%, down from 29% the year before. The Northern Cape received 23%, down from 31%. Mpumalanga received 24%, a rare improvement from 19%. Gauteng received 52%, the same as the year before. And way, way in the lead, we have the Western Cape, with 83% clean audits.

Or how about irregular expenditure? KwaZulu-Natal misspent a whopping R9.9-billion. Gauteng recorded R6.4-billion. The Free State clocked in with R3.9-billion. The North West Province had R3.1-billion. Limpopo burnt R2.5-billion. Mpumalanga poured R2.2-billion down the drain. The Northern Cape wasted R1.1-billion. The Eastern Cape came in just under the billion mark, with R860-million. The Western Cape was cited for a mere R44-million in irregular expenditure…

I am under no illusion that the DA, or its representatives, are incorruptible. Power corrupts, after all. Still, I have very high confidence that the DA will be less corrupt and less wasteful than the ANC in the next five or 10 years, whether it’s in a provincial or national government. If it slides down the same greasy slope, we can always vote it out again, and give someone else a go…

We can revisit whether the party actually deserves our votes once the existential threat the ANC poses to South Africa has been neutralised. The ANC might not be much of a yardstick, but a DA government is a far better option.

That’s why I will (once again) hide my dissatisfaction with the party’s unmoored policies. I’ll affix a clothespeg to my nose, put on a forced smile, and vote DA.

I would guess that when May rolls around, many South Africans will be doing the same.

[sources:timeslive&dailymav]