Good party secretary Brett Norton Herron has launched a scathing rebuke of the ANC government of national unity (GNU) partner, stopping short of calling the Democratic Alliance (DA) racist, drawing parallels between the party and Nigel Farage of the UK and Donald Trump of the US.
“Within the GNU, we have politicians who have partnered with AfriForum and Solidarity in labelling the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act an ‘attack on Afrikaners’. All of this signals a drift toward grievance politics and racial essentialism, not unity.”
Heritage Day celebrations
Herron was speaking against the backdrop of South Africans celebrating Heritage Day. The theme was “Reimagining our heritage institutions for a new era”.
His central thesis was “to whom does this new era belong, and who is being left behind”?
“Across the world, identity politics has taken a troubling turn. Fear-mongering and extremist views have become politically profitable again,” Herron said. He was pointing to the mainstreaming of racist discourse in US politics and the emboldening of far-right figures in the UK as indicators of a pervasive global shift.
“This dangerous trend is palpably close to home. Here in South Africa, we have several political parties, including within the GNU and in the opposition, that unashamedly campaign around the identity of one racial group over others. Crudely based on ethnic nationalism.”
He was speaking against the backdrop of the global resurgence of identity politics. And he warned of the rise of grievance-based politics and racial essentialism locally.
Dangerous political trends
“And South Africa is not immune to the dangerous trends gaining momentum elsewhere,” he said, referencing the party within the GNU that has partnered with AfriForum and Solidarity.
Herron said the root cause of this regression lies in the unfulfilled promises of democracy.
“Three decades in, this race-based politics is finding support largely because our governments have failed to meaningfully transform the economy, redistribute land and live up to our collective expectations of a ‘better life for all’,” he explained.
This failure, he argued, has created fertile ground for division.
“For many South Africans of colour, the promise of democracy has not been met… Fuelling the perception that white South Africans have, to all intents and purposes, ‘gotten away with apartheid’.”
He criticised the concurrent call from some quarters to simply “move on” without addressing persistent inequalities.
Divisive campaigning
With the 2026 election season on the horizon, Herron predicted a surge in divisive campaigning.
“Each year, parliamentarians speak of unity in diversity. But too many of those same politicians return to their constituencies to stoke fear and deepen fractures… turning cultural identity into a weapon instead of a bridge.”
He called for a decisive rejection of this path, invoking the wisdom of Nelson Mandela.
“We must reject the temptation to romanticise a fractured past or to repackage division as pride,” Herron said.
“The only legitimate political divide in this new era is the one Nelson Mandela warned us about. ‘It is not our diversity which divides us… Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division among us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not’.”
Call for recommitment
“Let us recommit to building a South Africa where everyone belongs. Let us reject those who encourage us to fear the so-called ‘other’. And let us refuse to be divided along the old lines of apartheid thinking. Whether they are drawn in race, religion, language, or class,” said Herron.
Farage is the leader of the growing Reform UK party, which was only founded in 2018 but already has a 35% share of the electorate.
