Rasool accuses Zille using her husband to salvage damp squib SOPA speech 

17 February 2019

The leader of the ANC election campaign in the Western Cape, Ebrahim Rasool, has accused Premier Helen Zille of turning her husband into a victim to salvage her damp squib State of the Province Address.

At a press conference held today, Rasool said Zille’s staunch defence of colonialism has forever obliterated her claims around her association with the murdered Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko.

He also said that the ANC welcomed Patricia de Lille’s Good Party, which launched its election manifesto at the weekend.

Rasool said: “Patricia de Lille is not a threat to the ANC. She’s a threat to the DA, whatever she does subtracts from the DA for us. That is good news. She’s a significant player in the Western Cape but she’s not a threat to the ANC.”

Rasool said the ANC welcomed an investigation threatened by Western Cape Legislature Speaker Sharna Fernandez into an incident involving ANC members and Helen Zille’s husband Johann Maree in the Legislature last Friday when she made her final SOPA speech.

He said: “I think this is sad that Helen Zille has to turn her husband into a victim to salvage her speech. That is the epitaph for Helen Zille’s Premiership and public life.”

Of Fernandez’s threat, he said: “As I said this is sad that Helen Zille has to turn her husband into a victim to salvage her speech. They can go through the motions of investigating it. We welcome it because the impression that they gave was that the man was assaulted. There was no assault.”

The DA gave the impression that Maree was a weakling who sat there “all vulnerable and being accosted by the ANC. That’s not the Johann Maree we know. He must be so embarrassed to be roped into this campaign in this way, portrayed by them as a weakling. He gave as good as he got”.

Fernandez could investigate, Rasool added, “Like all her investigations it will get nowhere.”

He said the ANC was satisfied with its Occupy Wale Street protest that was held as Zille spoke in the Legislature.

“It’s very instructive. We’ve had a cursory listen to Helen Zille. She interrupted herself 13 times to respond to what was happening outside,” he said.

Rasool and the ANC Provincial Executive Committee head of communications Lionel Adendorf agreed that the ANC was satisfied with Friday’s turnout and the symbolism of allowing ordinary people to tell the story of the real state of the province in their own words.

Issued by Dennis Cruywagen on behalf of ANC Western Cape, 17 February 2019