Kohler Barnard to face the music

Johannesburg - The fate of former DA shadow minister for police, Dianne Kohler Barnard will be decided on Friday when the party's disciplinary hearing sits to hear her response to charges laid against her following her sharing of a controversial social media post.

Kohler Barnard courted controversy last week when she shared a Facebook post from journalist Paul Kirk praising former apartheid president PW Botha.

In the post he declared, "Please come back PW Botha - you were far more honest than any of these [African National Congress] rogues, and you provided a far better service to the public".

Kohler-Barnard has since apologised for sharing the post.

At a DA protest outside Chancellor House on Thursday, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said Kohler Barnard would be given the chance at the disciplinary hearing to plead her case to the party top brass.

"That process will begin tomorrow... she is entitled to her own representation as the party is entitled to its own action," he said.

Shortly after the incident, Kohler Barnard said her sharing of the post without reading its full contents was stupid. She said she had missed the reference to PW Botha, which was in the middle of the post, when she shared it.

In a recent DA reshuffle, Kohler Barnard was removed from her position and is now deputy shadow minister of public works.

This article first appeared on News24 – see here.