The quitting of George mayor Charles Stander who was the no 2 for the DA in this election and the repeated ejecting of Maruis Fransman by the ANC could be considered in a racial context.
Before Fransman, former Premier Ebrahim Rasool and ANC heavyweight Saliem Mouzer were both gently led out to pasture by the ANC. Rasool and Mouzer were stalwarts of note, smart, hardworking and skilled regarding service delivery. Ironically all these qualities were not considered by the ANC. Before them there were others like Boesak, Chris Nissan and others who were also led to pasture.
Unlike his forerunners, Fransman refuses to vacate without a fight which he is almost certain to lose. The racial history of leadership battles implies the ANC in the Cape has done two things repeatedly.
Firstly the ANC wants to ensure that no brown person will be safe and secure to lead in the Western Cape. Secondly the ANC will cut off its proverbial nose to spite its face, losing election after election. This is evident as the internal battles have continued for decades.
On the flip side Mayor Patricia De Lille is doing everything in her power to ensure that the historic factions that ruined former Mayor Gerald Morkel and Peter Maruis and crippled the DA are discarded.
She has ridden roughshod over the older DA stalwarts and many of the old English liberals and their Afrikaner National Party counterparts have been reduced. Those who resisted were lured into retreat, thinking that retirement was their decision. Will this work and will the Mayor survive remains poignant questions as the liberals and Afrikaners have remained resilient for many years?
When voters go to the polls on Wednesday the racial makeup and history of political parties and how they have treated “mixed race” or “Coloured” or “brown” leaders cannot be ignored. This is why the resignation of the DA mayor in George Charles Standers must be measured by his outcry of racism.
Brown people cannot allow political parties to use them when needed and be discarded or reduced to silence after usage. We must consider beyond the noise of elections and ask why liquor and drug outlets mushroom in areas where brown people live. Why are squatter camps mushrooming in Coloured areas? Why it is that gang killings and chaos are acceptable on the Cape Flats but not in Plattekloof, Constantia and so on.
Oddly when brown leaders leave the ANC and DA they are vilified if they speak out about their experiences. Who can forget Grant Pascoe when he left the DA to join the ANC?
In the words of the wise, the increase in the number of small parties in Cape Town is a direct result of the cruel and ruthless manner in which the ANC and DA have treated brown leaders in the past.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress