Poetic Licence

The face of South Africa’s economy remains stubbornly pale. And every time the state dares to paint in the colours of justice and redress, the Democratic Alliance shouts “unfair.” Their crusade against the Employment Equity Amendment Act is not about rights, it’s about preserving the comfort of historical advantage. 

South Africa’s long walk to economic freedom is being blocked, not only by the ghosts of apartheid, but also by the DA in full daylight. Let’s call a thing what it is: their opposition to the Amendment Act is a political statement that says transformation must stop at the gates of privilege. It is about fear. Fear of a South Africa where opportunity doesn’t come with that same privilege that grew on the topsoil of the shallow, unmarked graves they buried our people in. The same privilege that was watered with our blood. The DA is fighting tooth and nail to continue eating from the fruits of those atrocities.   

This amendment doesn’t take away anyone’s rights, it enforces the rights of those long denied. It ensures that employment equity isn’t left to chance or corporate lip service. Yet the DA brands it “totalitarian”, as if transformation is tyranny and inequality is freedom. 

This Act is not revolutionary. It’s a necessary push for workplaces to reflect the people of this country: the Black majority, women, and people with disabilities. The DA calls this “discrimination.” We call it long-overdue justice. 

Their lawsuit to have it overturned is a clear signal that they will fight transformation disguised as defenders of the Constitution,  all the while upholding a status quo built on exclusion. 

Is it that difficult to see the attempt to address a brutal imbalance, where 66% of top management positions in the private sector are still held by white South Africans, despite them making up only 7% of the population?  

And this isn’t new. The DA opposed the National Minimum Wage when it was introduced, claiming it would destroy jobs. They didn’t mention how millions of Black workers were being paid starvation wages. They fought against the Expropriation Bill, which enables land expropriation without compensation under certain conditions, conveniently forgetting that most Black people were dispossessed without compensation in the first place. Now, with the National Health Insurance on the table, they cry “looting,” instead of recognising that most South Africans simply cannot afford to fall sick under a highly unequal, two-tier health system.  Time and again, the DA cloaks its resistance in constitutionalism and economic logic, but the thread is clear. Every time the state tries to level the playing field, they accuse it of rigging the game. Every time justice knocks, they scream theft.

Transformation is not a threat to democracy, it’s the fulfilment of it. The real danger lies in those who weaponise the Constitution to protect privilege and call it principle. The DA is not defending rights. It’s defending an old order. 

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