According to Mmusi Maimane his party is the most diverse political party in the history of SA, but added that the DA is “not diverse enough,” while speaking at the Apartheid Museum in Jozi.

Maimane said that it’s up to South Africans to embrace the country’s rich diversity as well as its challenges and contradictions.

 “If we do not, we will not be able to have an honest conversation about our divided past, nor will we be in a position to craft our shared future.”

 “And so, from today, I will require our structures, at constituency, regional and provincial levels, to set targets for the recruitment and development of candidates for public office.”

“These targets, and the progress made towards achieving them, will be reviewed regularly by the Federal Executive,” he said.

The DA’s objective, according to Maimane, is for the party to reflect the diversity of our ‘complex’ society in on all levels, by the 2019.

 “And we will do it without resorting to dehumanising quotas that reduce human beings to statistics,” he said.

He added that the party will introduce a policy document — to be adopted at the party’s Federal Council – that would set out a clear vision for a fair SA and would help overcome ‘structural inequalities’ that divide the country.

 “At its heart is the recognition that the majority of black South Africans remain locked out of opportunity. The policy identifies the key obstacles to redressing this inequality, including: our unequal education system, skewed patterns of land ownership, uneven access to justice and the concentration of capital in a few hands.”

“Ultimately, the only way to redress Apartheid’s legacy is to ensure that every child, no matter what their circumstances, has a fair chance to become the best they can be.”

The DA has introduced its own version of Black Economic Empowerment and the party believes that with these new measures it can achieve what the ANC has failed to in terms of real change for poor black South Africans through sustainable land reform policies.

“It means a focus on spatial development that undoes the separate and unequal development of Apartheid. It means ensuring that all our children receive an education that prepares them to compete with anyone in the world. And it means building an inclusive and growing economy that creates jobs, so that all may prosper together.”