A brief story of my Disciplinary Hearing with the DA

So for those of you that don't know, the FLC is the Federal Legal Commission of the DA, they deal with disciplinary matters within the party. So, I went through a three-month process with the FLC in which I had to provide them with my side of the story, then they asked questions regarding my answers and eventually, I flew up to Cape Town for an in-person meeting that lasted roughly three hours.

After that the FLC sent their heads of arguments over to me that said they found me guilty on one of the two charges against me. HOLD ON... take a breather here, do you want to know what the charges are?

1. Recording, or causing to be recorded, and uploading, or causing to be uploaded, to social media, a video in which you make discriminatory, hateful, and/or racist remarks, (FOUND NOT GUILTY)

2.Failing to disclose the existence of the video referenced in 3.1. and/or similar videos, remarks, and/or social media posts to the Party as part of your application to become a public representative for the Democratic Alliance in the 2024 National- and Provincial Government Elections, and other candidate selection processes subsequent to and including the 2016 Local Government Elections, which failure to disclose materially impacts and/or impacted on your suitability to be considered as a candidate for the Democratic Alliance. (FOUND GUILTY, EVEN THOUGH I DID DECLARE THE CHANNEL AND THE VIDEOS)

I then had the opportunity to provide my heads of argument in which I could demonstrate that I wasn't guilty of any of the charges. I submitted it and was confident that I would be found not guilty based on our constitution having clear indicators as to innocence or guilt in these areas.

Then, out of the blue, on Friday the 13th of September, I get a short email from Fedex (Federal Executive) telling me that my membership has been terminated.

However, when I looked at the actual document called "findings" attached in the email it became clear that the majority of the FLC panel found that I was still guilty but that my sanction should be that I remain with the DA but had to commit to remain off social media and close my Youtube channel.

If I did this I could remain as a DA MP. This recommendation was made by the people who met with me, engaged with me and corresponded with me for 3 months to get to the bottom of it all. Their decision was then sent to Fedex (Federal Executive) to be stamped for approval.

However ... Fedex didn't agree with their decision and implemented a harsher sanction against me which meant that my membership was terminated and therefore my seat in Parliament became vacant. (oh yes, they can do this, but only when they really want to).

So I am making a 40-minute video on this, that will be released this week on my YouTube channel, in which I will describe all the details and processes.

My question is why did we waste 3 months asking actual lawyers to meet and engage with me to find a suitable sanction against me and then once it is produced, the Fedex, who didn't sit in on any of these meetings, and honestly didn't spend three months to go over every single detail, suddenly decides no, and then implements a harsher sentence.

How is this an open and transparent process... especially based on the fact that I am being told I can't appeal this outcome? Yes, you read right, I can't appeal this decision because the constitution of the DA states a FLC decision can't be appealed. (Shocker)

So just in closing, I suggest the DA should just save the FLC some time and when you see a case you already have a sanction in mind then just give them a heads up so that ultimately your outcome is produced without wasting the party's resources or to come with facts that might just change your point of view.

Regards,

Renaldo Gouws

Source: X.com