Former DA leader and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has been suspended from all party activities after refusing to apologise to the country for her tweets on colonialism.
DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, made the announcement on Saturday, saying that Zille will face a disciplinary hearing.
Maimane said that her role in the Western Cape government will remain as it is “a legislative process.”
He said it had taken this long to arrive at the decision to suspend Zille because they had hoped to resolve it by other means.
“People must be afforded the right to make representations” at a disciplinary hearing, Maimane said.
The DA’s institutions must now take its course, he said.
“It has become quite evident that Helen Zille and I hold fundamentally different attitudes about the mission the Democratic Alliance needs to accomplish in 2019, and the goals and priorities that flow from this,” Maimane said.
“Ms Zille’s social media commentary and public utterances in connection with colonialism undermine our reconciliation project. There is no question that Ms Zille's original tweets and subsequent justifications have damaged our standing in the public mind.”
“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.”
“As the Leader of the party, it is up to me to rebuild public trust. In this regard, I asked Ms Zille to tender an unreserved apology to both South Africa and the DA for the damage she has done. Unfortunately, she declined,” Maimane added.
“In this period, Ms Zille has continued to damage the party with various pieces of communication that seek to undermine what we are trying to achieve,” he said.
“Accordingly, Federal Executive has resolved Ms Zille be suspended from all party related activities until such time as her disciplinary hearing is concluded. A notice of suspension will be served on Ms Zille in this regard.”
Maimane said this “has not been an easy decision. But, as the Leader, I must do what is right for the party and South Africa.”
