Zille shies away from scrutiny to avoid tough questions

It is extremely strange that DA leader Helen Zille all of a sudden decided to snub The New Age/SABC Business Briefing at the end of the month, while she is no stranger in using public money to buy publicity to advance her profile.

The ANC says it is well known that Zille and her government have radio shows paid by taxpayer money and has entered into all kinds of arrangements to look better. Even appointing a massive communication contractor like TBWA/Hunt Lascaris under a cloud took place on her watch, tainted with improper cadre deployment, maladministration as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Leader of the Opposition in the Western Cape provincial legislature Lynne Brown (ANC MPL and NEC member) says: "It is therefore extremely strange that Zille, who is always pushing for publicity, who took part in a Business Briefing on 2 February 2012 in Cape Town and agreed to be part of another almost a year later, all of a sudden withdrew hypocritically citing the use of public money as reason why she cannot continue (see New Age report).

Does Zille have a sliding moral fulcrum? Strangely, at the first briefing in February 2012 in her opening address she thanked chairman of The New Age Atul Gupta and Telkom's Clyde Rossouw for ‘sponsoring the breakfast' and ‘enabling this to happen'! What changed since? These interactions were funded as a way to bring the public closer to government. Or does the DA prefer the public to be kept at a distance, uninformed and voiceless?

Did she have a sudden epiphany in the New Year than wasn't there early in 2012? Or is it because she has recently come under tremendous fire for her and her government's heartless positions on farm labourers siding with land owners instead, the arbitrary closing of poor schools and even inferior service delivery? Or, perhaps it is the fact that unprecedented protest in the Western Cape makes her to shy away from a public questioning session on national television? One wonders!

"It is clear she is not comfortable to be in the spotlight when things do not go her way, as she has yet to come out publicly on the farm crisis, the arbitrary closing down of schools and many unresolved service delivery issues. It appears that she prefers to go into hiding to avoid public scrutiny!"

Statement issued by Lynne Brown, leader of the ANC opposition in the Western Cape provincial legislature, January 22 2013

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