Peter Bruce claims in his column about John Steenhuisen’s exit that the DA would be “mad” not to continue to focus on race, and that “South Africa is soaked in race and to ignore it is to confine yourself to a fringe of our politics” (“A turning point for the DA”, February 5.
He states that as if it’s self-evident, but it is not. The ANC has been hyper-focused on race for at least the past quarter-century, and where has that gotten the country? Any policy or legislation with race as its focus will not move South Africa to becoming a prosperous and unified country.
It would be a mistake for the DA to once again focus on race. Race-based policy only creates insiders and outsiders and impoverishes everyone, not just those who aren’t the beneficiaries.
Some people will point to apartheid and say it worked to make whites better off, but the policy arguably made whites poorer than they would have been in a system that did not award benefits based on race.
The next DA leader should follow Steenhuisen’s lead and reject race-based policy entirely.
Marius Roodt
Bedfordview
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