The Democratic Alliance (DA) has been campaigning furiously for the past two months against the assertion that Cape Town is racist, after this was again thrust into the public spotlight at the beginning of the year by acclaimed singer Simphiwe Dana’s tweet that “no matter how famous/ rich you are, you’re still a 2nd class citizen if you’re Black in Cape Town”.
After Dana asked DA leader Helen Zille for proof of the change she often trumpets, Zille responded, now infamously, by telling Dana that she had demeaned herself by acting like a “professional Black” instead of a Black professional.
Zille was heavily criticised and just weeks later, the DA’s student organisation, DASO, suddenly put out a series of posters on Facebook, one featuring a very young Black woman and an older white man – both at least half naked - and the slogan “in OUR future, you wouldn’t look twice”.