The phrase “the more things change, the more they stay the same” seems to be true for the DA, as it again finds itself embroiled in a public race row, with Helen Zille, also again, at the centre of things.
While one would expect that the politicians in the country’s second-biggest party would have the ability to not step into the exact same trap it has been in before, this seems not to be the case with the DA.
Over the past few years, Zille has courted controversy for a number of comments on Twitter, including the infamous 2017 tweet that the legacy of colonialism was not only negative. The DA was forced to take disciplinary action against her at the time because of the backlash. At the time she was premier of the Western Cape but held no leadership role in the party.
It doesn’t seem Zille has learnt anything from the last incident as she continues to tweet extensively on racially sensitive topics.
But this time things are different — Zille now holds one of the most powerful positions in the DA, that of federal council chair. Part of her job is ensuring DA members fall in line and adhere to party rules, something she seems unable to do.
In the past few days, Zille has been on one of her Twitter crusades, making outlandish comments, attacking anyone who does not agree with her and picking fights with not only random social media users but her own party colleagues.
In one of the tweets, Zille said there were more racist laws in a democratic SA than under apartheid. “All racist laws are wrong. But permanent victimhood is too highly prized to recognise this,” she tweeted.
In another tweet, she commented that SA’s last apartheid president, FW De Klerk, “decided to dismantle apartheid”, and if he had not, the ANC, which now governs the country, would still “be bogged down in the mess of its so-called liberation camps and infighting”.
When in response to one of her tweets someone asked how her colleagues, such as Phumzile van Damme “deal with this”, Zille’s response was: “They chill at home and enjoy the sea view”.
This comment did not go down well, and Van Damme demanded a public explanation from the federal chair — and rightly so. Mbali Ntuli, who will be standing for the position of DA leader when the party eventually runs its elective conference, has also tweeted interim leader John Steenhuisen asking whether Zille should not be thanked for her service and retired now.
Complaints have been laid against Zille, one of them by Gauteng MP Khume Ramulifho. Zille herself has referred the complaints to the party’s federal legal council, which will look at all relevant facts, the party’s constitution and policies, and advise the federal executive on the matter, according to deputy chair Thomas Walters.
But the voices in the party taking on Zille for her comments are few and far between. There also seems to be no real will to rein her in, despite the serious damage her utterances may cause. Steenhuisen said in a media response that he has had a conversation with Zille and expressed his views on the matter. While he said her comment that there were more racist laws under a democratic SA than under apartheid was not true, the question rightly arises whether this is enough.
The DA could argue that what Zille puts out on social media in her personal capacity does not reflect the views of the party. That is all well and good, but history has shown that these social media rants have a direct effect on the DA’s electoral standing.
A review panel set up to look at the state of the party after its poor showing in the 2019 election said the party was uncertain and divided on how to approach the question of race and that this had a particularly negative impact on its election performance.
The review panel report said one of the events or incidents that had damaged the party’s brand and dented its support level was: “Helen Zille’s tweets about colonialism and the subsequent handling of the issue”. It also cited the DA’s involvement in racially charged issues and incidents as a problem, and recommended, among other things, that the party and its public representatives establish the full facts of incidents reported in the news or on social media before taking a public position on them, and avoid embroiling itself in social media storms in general.
Now, with a local government election around the corner and the DA having already lost control in all three of the metros it managed to win through a coalition agreement in the 2016 local government elections after those agreements collapsed, the party seems to be on the same downward spiral.
Instead of using this time to work on winning back the support it lost, it seems to be making the same mistakes all over again. If Zille continues on this trajectory, it will be at the DA’s peril. The harsh reality is that this will once again likely end in tears at the ballot box. And this time around it will not be Mmusi Maimane’s head on the chopping block, but that of the new leader.
• Quintal is political editor.
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