There has been much indignant shouting and chest-beating over the resignation of Mmusi Maimane as leader of the DA. If you were an alien in SA last week, you would have thought Maimane  was a hero among black South Africans. Much of the commentary on Maimane has come from black people who often called Maimane horrendous names on social media and to his face, likening him to a betrayer of the black race.

The EFF leader Julius Malema, for example, offered Maimane a stiff drink, saying he was a good human being. This is the same person who, in June 2014, referred to Maimane as a “tea boy” and a “house nigger”...