Of course, it’s worth pointing out that the DA has never claimed to be a libertarian party. I guess that means that, at the very least, they’re not guilty of hypocrisy. It’s not like they went against their core principles just to score a cheap political point against the ANC. The question of how much I agree with their core principles, of course, is another matter entirely. (Some would say that scoring cheap political points against the ANC is their core principle!)

What they are guilty of, obviously, is political opportunism. Not only that, but incompetent political opportunism. I’m certain that legally, they’re on shaky ground, and as I mentioned before, timing the story so it fell on the same day as the budget and got buried by the media shows rather poor news management. If they can’t handle a simple job like embarrassing the ANC, how will they manage something hard – like, say, running the country?

However, just for the record, I don’t buy the argument that the DA’s actions here could actually aggravate the racial situation they complained about. Okay, to be honest, I haven’t heard anyone actually make this argument yet, but it seems like such an obvious counter-point that I can just imagine some ANC spin-doctor dreaming it up right now. A bit of pre-emption on my part. (Note: The even more obvious ANC strategy is to do nothing and hope the media doesn’t notice.)