Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Helen Zille is an unrepentant racist who has no regard for millions of South Africans who have been marginalised by colonialism.
This is according to ANC acting provincial chairperson Khaya Magaxa after Zille was once again caught in a Twitter storm when she tweeted on the issue yesterday.
This despite being placed on suspension for bringing the DA into disrepute, and then apologising for her controversial tweets defending aspects of colonialism’s legacy.
In response to the latest tweet, the DA has seemingly shelved the issue for now, with party leader Mmusi Maimane’s spokesperson Portia Adams saying the focus should be on next year's elections instead.
Adams said Maimane had previously responded to Zille’s colonialism tweets.
“Our country is gearing up for general elections next year which could possibly be the most contested elections since our democracy. We must encourage South Africans to break free from the shackles of the ANC and free themselves from poverty. This is the conversation we should have as South Africans, ‘how can we contribute to better our situation and our country’, ensuring that we are not left out of our economy,” Adams said.
Zille’s latest tweets came after Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba tweeted a picture comparing US President Donald Trump to President Cyril Ramaphosa. The picture listed what Trump had seemingly achieved alongside Ramaphosa’s “failures”.
A Twitter user had tweeted in response to Mashaba, saying “Despicable and disgusting that Trump is now the role model of the DA. This is 100 times worse than @helenzille colonialism tweet!”
Zille responded: “Do you genuinely believe the legacy of colonialism was ONLY negative? Then let’s scrap the constitution, including concepts such as the separation of powers. Let’s scrap formal education institutions, the English language etc etc.”
Mashaba has defended his tweet, saying it had not endorsed Trump.
“This is not about personalities. The point of the tweet was to illustrate the fact that, despite our misgivings of President Trump, his government has been engaged in action which is allegedly returning some benefits,” Mashaba said.
Magaxa had lodged a complaint with Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s office against Zille after her previous colonialism tweets.
He charged that “she celebrated the oppression, exploitation, racism and poverty which are the direct results of the legacy of colonialism”.
On her arrival from Singapore last year, Zille charged that South Africa had much to learn from the repressive city-state.
Waiting to board a plane to Cape Town, Zille tweeted: “For those claiming legacy of colonialism was only negative, think of our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water, etc.”
Magaxa said: “Helen Zille believes that any development we have in the country is because of colonialism, and we have been correcting her. Zille, because she is a product of colonialism, believes strongly that there is nothing that can be improved without having been colonised. It borders on an extreme form of racism.
“We will take this further if she wishes to review the public protector’s finding, because we believe we have a strong case,” Magaxa said.
Referencing Zille’s comment on the English language, Magaxa said many Africans had been marginalised by the language, and had to do double the work when they arrived at universities.
“She is making English a superior language, which is racism at its worst. Zille is an unrepentant racist,” he said.
Mkhwebane in June found Zille to have violated the constitution and the integrity of her office for her tweets on colonialism.
Mkhwebane had instructed the provincial Speaker to table the report before the legislature for it to take appropriate action to hold Zille accountable.
Last month Zille launched her court bid to take Mkhwebane’s report on judicial review.
Her office didn't respond to questions or requests by last night.