Colonialism used as a smoke screen to suspend Zille

8 June 2017

Helen Zille’s utterances on the subject of colonialism may simply have been used as a smoke screen in order to suspend her. Based on statements by the DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, it seems that his decision to take action against Zille is actually motivated by the fact that they hold ‘fundamentally different views’ about what the Democratic Alliance needs to accomplish in 2019, says dr. Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus.

Dr. Groenewald says that the DA’s account of Zille being suspended due to her utterances on the subject of colonialism is an example of where being politically correct trumps being truthful.

He says that if there is one nation in South Africa that certainly suffered greatly under colonialism, it is the Afrikaner whose country was destroyed and taken away by force and who lost tens of thousands of women and children in the concentration camps.

“Despite the oppression and the cruelty towards the Afrikaner nation and the people of South Africa, one cannot deny that certain aspects of colonialism did indeed benefit the country and its people.

“It doesn’t help to try and strive for a better past in South Africa. We need to strive for a better future. Part of creating a better future is to learn from history and not to repeat the mistakes of the past, to build on the positive and what we have learnt from the past.

“When political correctness is used to try and create a better past, then we will not be able to create a better future because people are being deceived.

“The FF Plus believes that there is a lot to be learnt from the past, even from colonialism, and that we need to build on its positive contributions in order to create a better future,” says dr. Groenewald.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus Leader, 8 June 2017