Western Cape Premier Helen Zille says DA leader Mmusi Maimane jumped the gun when he announced her suspension would be immediate, because Maimane may have misunderstood the party’s constitution. The DA has served Zille with a notice of intention to suspend her membership, following her tweets defending white colonialism.
The premier also denied that she was given special treatment over a black DA MP Mbali Ntuli. Both face charges over their comments on social media. Some maintain that Mbali was charged within days of her offence, while the party took too long with Zille’s case.
Zille is trying to backpeddle her tweet defending colonialism. She now says she “never defended or justified colonialism” and is now denouncing it in the strongest terms. “I’ve always said that colonialism was absolutely diabolical,” she said.
She has apologised unreservedly on social media for her tweets on colonialism and reiterated her apology in Parliament, but said she would not admit guilt. “In my apology I’m not going to admit guilt to infringements that I don’t believe I’ve committed.
Zille tweeted in March that the colonial legacy was not only negative, citing “our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water etc”.
The DA wants to get rid of its white leader to broaden its appeal to black voters because they have dismissed it as primarily representative of South Africa’s white liberal minority.
Zille, a former journalist and anti-apartheid activist who had given armed ANC terrorists shelter in her home, is discovering that she is not liberal and leftist enough to lead the party. The DA is at a critical juncture, with growing black calls to get rid of the premier, not only from the party but also from the provincial government.
She has until Tuesday to give reasons why she should not be suspended, pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing into her tweets about colonialism.
“We live in a fragile democracy, which means our public representatives must, at all times, be sensitive to the legitimate anger that people still feel about our past and its legacy,” Maimane said about her tweet in a statement.
Party leaders have decided that Zille should be “suspended from all party-related activities until such time as her disciplinary hearing is concluded,” Maimane said.
Hellen Zille is of Jewish decent and was born in Johannesburg after her parents migrated to South Africa from Germany after WWII.