The DA's Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Herman Mashaba, believes the ANC is using race to loot the country.

This was why he did not believe in race-based policies, he told News24. "I'm saying this whole thing is so divisive, I don't really want to be party to this.

"I'm a South African, I'm a human being. We can't address inequality in our country by dividing people along racial lines and reminding us all the time. I'm saying this is unacceptable."

Mashaba said he did not look at race when he associated with people but rather chose to surround himself with like-minded people.

But he was not saying that race was not important, he clarified.

Don't use my race to divide

Since Mashaba made similar comments on Saturday when he was announced as the Democratic Alliance's candidate for mayor, he said the ANC was trying to create the impression that he did not want to be called black.

He said it was a shame that this was happening.

"I don't want a government to use my race to divide me against other people. I don't really want the government of the ANC to use race to loot this country.

"I'm saying let's use redress in a constructive manner, in the process build society, build one united South Africa and no one will have any problem with that," he said.

Asked whether he thought he would be isolating potential voters by his comments, Mashaba said no, claiming that the only people it isolated were those who benefited from such policies and that was the ANC.

He accused the party of using these policies to buy political patronage.

Not prepared to lie "You can imagine that what I'm saying, wanting to have a broad base inclusion and really attending to the plight of the marginalised, [the] ANC would not like that because they want policies which benefit them and their cronies.

"There is nothing I can do about it and I'm not prepared to lie to our people [about the fact] that I'm not really happy with ANC policies," Mashaba said.

It was not fair to articulate and promote a policy knowing that it was misleading people, he added.

Mashaba said under the DA and under his leadership in Johannesburg they would address the plight of poor South Africans, by growing the economy by making sure the country had an inclusive economy.

With a growing economy there would be no need for raced based policies because all South Africans would have equal opportunity.

He believed the DA would grow the economy.

Crunch the real numbers

"When this economy grows at 5% there won't be any issue of anyone asking why we only employ certain people because South Africans will all have an opportunity.

"At the end of the day we want to make sure that our people are not compromised, are not bought by political rhetoric because at the end of the day we will come out with a policy framework which is going to really work for poor South Africans as well and they don't have to belong to us as a political party," he said.

Mashaba asked that people do real number crunching and ask themselves whether South Africa had enough white people to fill all the good, senior positions in the country once the economy grew.

There were less than four million whites in South Africa, which was not enough to threaten the development of the country, he added.

"We want our white South Africans to actually be part of this journey to ensure that they help in kick-starting that process.

"But we don't want a situation where we want anyone to feel threatened. We need to embrace a situation where all South Africans are equal before the law," Mashaba said.

Source: News24