A report on the Democratic Alliance‘s disastrous handling of the Schweizer-Reneke school racism incident has emerged, clearing former youth leader Luyolo Mphithi, who was left to carry the can in 2019 when an election postmortem found it had cost the party votes and members.
The document provides a fascinating insight into the DA’s desperate attempts to find resonance with black voters for nearly two decades.
Although high-ranking leaders were part of the federal head office (FHO) war room which oversaw the DA’s response to the school racism saga, it was Mphithi who was singled out for blame over the incident, with most of the others involved having left the party after the 2019 election.
Mphithi found himself in the heat of fire between his party — which had been attempting to present itself as an alternative to the ANC under the tenure of Mmusi Maimane — and its core constituents.
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Lizeka Tandwa
Lizeka Tandwa is a political journalist with a keen interest in local government.
