Zille now says Ramphele cannot be trusted

Last night a news report appeared in which DA leader, Helen Zille, said that Agang SA leader, Mamphela Ramphele, cannot be trusted.

In less than a week the polimance is over. 

They unlikely to kiss and make up

All indications are that the contrived decision by the DA to front Ramphele as their black presidential candidate never even got off the ground.

What Zille and company found is that Ramphele only has interests and when those interests are crossed she moves on to other interests.

What is also clear is that Ramphele is an inconsistent and unprincipled political opportunist.

I am not an admirer of Zille's politics.  Her often buffoonish political antics that are accompanied by dancing on public stages turns my blood cold.

I do, however, not for one minute believe that she is insincere or that she is at her core a leader who does not care about the welfare of South Africa.

This episode is in effect the culmination of an existential crisis in the DA.  What is needed now is a rethink of how to build the party beyond its racial vulnerability.  In other words, how to make the DA appeal to rank and file South Africans who represent the majority.

That is not going to be an easy task given the history of South Africa and the place of the DA in the lineage from which it stems.

Nonetheless, I think Zille and company should celebrate the fact that Ramphele is gone.  She is a non-entity in South African politics and would have proven to be a liability for reasons of her self-centered personality and shallow elitist pretensions.

Those who still think she earned a struggle pedigree in Steve Biko's Black Consciousness Movement in the 70s are not paying attention to how she has worked to undermine that ideology - and black people - in the decades since his passing.

Ramphele is not pro-black by any measure though she has eaten greedily at the trough of black empowerment policies.

The DA is lucky to see the back of Ramphele and my thinking is that this episode won't hurt them at the polls in May.

The other side is that if she had stayed on as their presidential candidate it would not have helped them at the polls in May either.

So, you really cannot measure the half of nothing.  By any measure - it remains nothing.

That said, even though the DA will not gain or lose at the polls in May it still is fortunate for them that Ramphele is gone from their midst.

Onward!

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