The DA have been stupid and cowardly before, but now they are showing themselves to be without any sort of character.

Last week it was announced that the DA’s donors had pressured it into promising Former FirstRand Group chairperson Roger Jardine the presidential candidacy in the multiparty coalition (MPC - also known as the “moonshot pact”).

After the news broke, coalition partners were understandably incensed, and both the VF+ and the IFP complained that this undermined the political process. Political candidates should instead earn their place at the table, rather than buying their way in.

Of course, it has been said that the deal has not yet been inked, but Jardine has now already launched a new political party, Change Starts Now (CSN).

CSN is stacked with former ANC functionaries who have until now been content to share a table with murderers, rapists, racists and compulsive thieves, now backed by prominent establishment business types.

The banking sector from which Jardine comes is notorious for its revolving door hiring policy with the ruling party, though perhaps that can be at least partially be chalked up to the exigencies of BEE.

But these contacts also provide access to favourable press coverage and PR companies, who often buy pieces in leading newspapers, which may explain the inundation of news coverage recently.

Notable figures joining the new party include hardline communist Mark Heywood, Helen Suzman Foundation alumnus Nicole Fritz, and former Mbeki spokesman and Old Mutual board member Murphy Morobe.

Recently, former MK general and SANParks CEO Mavuso Msimang has joined them after quitting the ANC, saying the corruption is too much. After 30 years of sitting in the middle of it and benefitting from those connections, his claimed motives are impossible to take seriously.

These people can be summed up as disgruntled left-wing elites with suspicious business careers, not unlike Jardine himself, who stepped from the ANC’s ranks straight into the top of the business sector.

Jardine emphasizes the need for “change”, criticizing the current government's incompetence and advocating for a diverse coalition. But what that “change” is supposed to be is unclear - given that, like the majority of the new parties, they espouse exactly the same outlook as the ANC, they seem to want to hold the reigns, not change the destination of the horse.

Rise Mzansi and BOSA have both expressed a desire to preserve BEE and anti-minority discrimination for the foreseeable future, and Jardine is unlikely to be any different, since they all draw leadership and membership from the same backgrounds - communist liberation movement alumni, bleeding-heart NGO activists and powerful businessmen from the cartel class.

CSN wants to join the MPC with Jardine as the presidential candidate. If this happens, it will be an effective takeover of the DA by ANC also-rans and corrupt business interests, for nothing more than a campaign donation, allegedly of R1 billion.

The DA's reasons for entertaining this strong-arm tactic are easy to understand. Their white leadership, which has resisted compromising their nonracialist stance so far, has seen no new mass black conversion to English Liberalism. The ordinary voter simply won't vote for a white person.

DA leaders Helen Zille and John Steenhuizen reportedly yielded to funding pressure, though this would not be surprising, as between the, they have been the most prominent promoters of a coalition with the ANC as a “best worst option”.

Looks like they are finding a way to sell the party to the Charterists without even joining them in the first place.