Detonation in the DA
All it took was a little nudge and all the assurances of unity and introspection within the party came tumbling down to expose an organisation in terrible trouble.
A week ago, one of my junior colleagues, Hermann Pretorius, inadvertently triggered a meltdown in the Democratic Alliance (DA). The background is that the IRR has started the Daily Friend as an online newspaper – which you are now reading – and young Hermann was asked to write a column in place of a senior columnist who was away. He produced one in which he argued that Western Cape Premier Alan Winde would be an excellent candidate for DA leader.
The DA exploded. DA MP Phumzile van Damme, who has triggered racial conflicts within the party, is being investigated by the party for allegedly assaulting a member of the public, and has been identified by party strategists as being a major reason for its loss of support in the elections earlier this year, took to Twitter to describe the IRR as ‘thirsty hyenas’.
Fellow DA MP Luyolo Mphithi took to Twitter to say, ‘The IRR has taken off its mask a long time ago in its attempt to engineer democracy from the backdoor.’ The trouble with that statement notwithstanding, Mr Mphithi is the same person who was promoted to Parliament by the DA after he sparked the racial furore in Schweizer-Reneke in January when he falsely accused the teachers at Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke of racism.
Herman Mashaba, whose administration in Johannesburg is facing serious allegations of corruption and who, we are told, is being investigated by the DA for racially abusing a colleague, said that ‘…involvement of the IRR in DA affairs is extremely concerning…so-called liberal narratives being banded (sic) around are a real threat to South Africa’s democracy…[to]…keep the ANC in power to keep Blacks poor’.