Helen Zille speaks at the opening of the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (Daso) at UCT last week.

Democratic Alliance MP and education guru Helen Zille came to UCT last week to launch the university's Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (Daso). In a typically rousing talk, Zille pointed out how things have changed since her days as a student activist at Wits University and UCT in the 1970s. Today, the liberal politics of the DA have fallen out of favour with many under South Africa's new democracy, black members in townships are hounded, and students organising for the party at UCT are heckled, she said. Regardless, the DA stands by its vision for a society in which people are measured by the content of their character and not the colour of their skin, Zille continued. "That is exactly the same vision we stood for 30 years ago; it is the vision that brought us into conflict with the National Party, and we articulate it again today because our message is just as relevant."