FW de Klerk, the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance

Dr Denis Worrall reminds South Africans here of how pivotal a role the Democratic Party, which he helped found, has played in shaping our constitutional democracy. It’s timely, given the travails the DA faces today and the potential it has to continue making a fundamental difference to the way this country evolves. Our current service delivery dysfunction and corruption hangover (with thousands still lolling contentedly in Happy Hour), has put the country into an economic tailspin the likes of which we last saw 30 years ago. That was when a financial crisis helped prompt former President FW de Klerk to give his courageous watershed speech unbanning the ANC. That he took on the hardliner apartheid ideologues in his own party is uncontested, as was the electoral mauling the NP received in September 1989, just five months earlier. It was then that De Klerk turned to the DA voters to secure a white referendum that voted in favour of what was considered radical reform. Worrall asks whether history is not repeating itself, with the ANC, (or factions of it), failing to win 50% in the next election. He also grasps the nettle of whether the DA considers itself a multi-racial or non-racial party, giving valuable historical perspective to this volatile debate. – Chris Bateman