The Queen of Hearts
Helen Zille's latest epistle ("My biggest mistake..ever", 25 May) shows all too plainly that something is badly wrong.
She starts by telling us that both her father and then Ryan Coetzee told her "never complain, never explain". She then decides that she is going to do both. What she is really saying is "I don't listen to advice or, if I do, I certainly don't take it".
She then says that offering Mamphela Ramphele the DA's presidential nomination was her greatest mistake. But she omits the fact that this was actually the second time that she had effectively tried to give away the party leadership to Mamphela. This ended farcically on the first occasion with Mamphela demanding nothing less than the dissolution of the DA as her price. So what Ms Zille is really telling us is "I refuse to learn from experience, even from quite disastrous experience".
To which could be added the fact that Helen long worked for Mamphela at UCT and had plenty of experience of what an arrogant, demanding and peremptory woman she was. Many people felt quite sorry for what Helen had to put up with. What this amounts to is "I refuse to learn my lesson even when my nose is rubbed in it."
Although she starts off by saying that the offer to Mamphela was her greatest mistake ever, she then twists this around to saying that actually it was the least worst decision and was thus justified. What this amounts to is saying "See, even when I am wrong, I am right".