Countries >  South Africa
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DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE ^[EH]

The right-wing Democratic Alliance (DA) of South Africa (an alliance built between the Democratic Party (DP) and the Federal Alliance (FA)) takes as its vision the freedom of all South Africans.  It is based primarily on an idea of poverty eradication, and the construction of social support systems that help to boost the societal positioning of those who are now in economic danger, primarily those who felt the greatest oppression under Apartheid rule.  The DA supports a market economy, emphasizing on its website the importance of individual agency through “socially and environmentally responsible free enterprise economy driven by choices, risks and hard work”.  Both their official stance as well as their public and media image is of an opposition party—a party that views the importance of opposition as central to any functioning democracy. ^EH[1]

As an opposition party, the DA is the official counter weight to the dominant political party, the African National Congress (ANC), described as far-left on a political spectrum.^EH[2]  The DA began as an alliance between the DP and the New National Party in 2000, however tension was inherent in conflicts of ideology, the DP growing out of white led anti-apartheid politics, and the NNP coming out of the apartheid New Party.^EH[3]  While the DA holds a substantial number of seats in the National Assembly, the extent of its representation is weak in comparison to the strength of the ANC and its allied parties (such as the NNP).  Though labeled as the official opposition, financial analysts believe that the greater threat to current power is from leftist factions of the ANC rather than from the right-of-ANC Democratic Alliance.^EH[4]  The DA lost the direction of Cape Town, the only metropolitan area not controlled by the ANC, in October of 2002 to party defectors to the NNP.^EH[5]  The DA’s focus has now shifted to garnering support from the underemployed in rural areas.^EH[6] 

This recent loss by the DA has led to internal tensions, mostly evident in the return of former NNP members to their party, and criticisms of the alliance’s (and specifically the Democratic Party’s) leader, Tony Leon.  Leon and the party are accused of elitist political rhetoric that, while advocating massive social changes, does little to enact these changes and has created racial divisions in the country.^EH[7]  One such policy proposal is the institution of a basic income grant for poor South Africans, upon which the party will run a high publicity election campaign in 2004.  The DA refuses to ally itself with other organizations to realize this policy, most notably the Congress of South African Trade Unions^EH[8] (allied to the ANC), however the public nature of this campaign may be associated with the party’s courting of votes among unsupportive black constituents.^EH[9]

In reaction to the threat of US lead war on Iraq, President Mbeki and the ANC have urged South Africans to take a pro-peace stance against the US.^EH[10]  At the same time that Leon argues for a nonpartisan analysis of events, he also labels such moves as politically dangerous radicalism that will lead to American alienation.  His interest here is in retaining American support like that which lead to the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act, a controversial but valuable source of jobs in South Africa.^EH[11]  The Democratic Alliance also opposes the ANC on their recent economic policy, rejecting a budget proposal that in the party’s eyes would not provide enough economic confidence or agency to citizens and investors.^EH[12] 

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 Countries >  South Africa