TWO VISIONS FOR SOUTH AFRICA


Summary

Two defining speeches by Tony Leon, leader of the official opposition.

It is common cause that serious debate of alternative political visions and programmes is a sine qua non of any healthy democracy. For the past 10 years, the ANC has dominated the South African electoral landscape, and its analysis of politics has paraded itself as the conventional wisdom.

In this environment, it takes self-confidence, courage and intellectual strength to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy. DA's leader, Tony Leon MP, possesses each of these qualities, and puts them to use in offering South Africa an alternative analysis of politics and vision for the future.

The first of the two speeches in this booklet sets out the DA's analysis of the ANC's "National Democratic Revolution". The second offers the DA's alternative - the promotion of an "Open, Opportunity Society".

In essence, the ANC's National Democratic Revolution is a "racialised" project which requires the extension of ANC "hegemony" over all "levers of power" in society and the implementation of a special type of affirmative action, called "demographic representivity".

This project can lead to the undue and unhelpful regimentation of our society.

Tony Leon's address to the Johannesburg Press Club on 10 June is a detailed and overdue exposition of the governing ideology and the challenges it presents to our constitutional democratic order.

The pursuit of an Open, Opportunity Society by contrast, requires firstly, the protection and promotion of a constitutional order in which the power of the state and the ruling party is limited in favour of expanding the degree of individual freedom enjoyed by citizens; and in the second place, the promotion of policies that provide citizens with the opportunity and ability to make use of their freedoms in pursuit of their own goals and happiness.

The ideas contained in these speeches deserve to be seriously considered and properly debated. For whatever its outcome, South Africa needs to remain a non-racial, non- sexist society, and not a reincarnation of a decrepit socialist state.

The Democratic Alliance is committed to South Africa's democratic future. Our leader's vision - and the party's mission - places us four square behind the ideals and promise of South Africa's constitution and the policies of real economic growth. I believe these speeches improve the prospects of bringing those objectives within our reach.

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