DA’S MOTION A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO DIVERT ATTENTION FROM ITS RACISM SCANDALS
29 February 2016
The Office of the ANC Chief Whip is well aware that the DA's scheduled no confidence motion and its undemocratic calls for the recusal of the members of the executive from the debate is nothing but a ploy to try and divert the public's attention from the racism scandals embarrassing the party on an ongoing basis. The party is therefore forewarned that their constitutionally baseless and frivolous stunt will come and go, but such would neither cleanse it nor divert attention from the racism and apartheid promotion scandals amongst its senior members.
Week after week the country is confronted with new revelations of racism perpetrated by white DA leaders and rank and file members. Yesterday, another report emerged regarding DA' senior leader and mayoral candidate for the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, Athol Trollip, that he treated Black labourers like slaves and frequently refers to them as baboons at his father's farm in the Eastern Cape. Last weekend, another report emerged that white DA leaders intended punishing their Black colleagues for publicly speaking out about racism in the party. These are the latest relating to a stream of racism scandals emerging from the party.
Instead of expending his energies on rooting out racism and proving that he is in firm control of the party, Mmusi Maimane engages in diversionary publicity stunts whose intention is to cloak racism. The continuing abuse of parliamentary processes through futile gimmicks wastes Parliament’s time and distract it from its real work of serving the people.
The DA is once again advised to take tough stance against racism and expel the likes of Dianne Kohler-Barnard and Athol Trollip, instead of sweeping it under the carpet; victimising Black leaders who speak out about it or resorting to diversionary stunts in parliament.
The DA deflection attempts are not only desperate but they also border on the absurd. The letters that the party has been writing to individual members of the executive demanding that they recuse themselves from participating in the motion debate are unconstitutional, exceed the acceptable bounds of parliamentary oversight and amount to undemocratic tactics. The DA is stooping too low and being brazenly silly with its ill-informed letters. It runs a risk of having its genuine oversight correspondence in future not being taken seriously.
No provision in the Constitution precludes democratically elected MPs from participating in parliamentary debate or voting on no confidence motions. We urge members of the executive to ignore the nonsensical letters and refuse to dignify them with responses.
We will undoubtedly defeat the DA’s misguided motion and condemn it to the rubbish bin of history through superior arguments to reaffirm the confidence of the great majority of South Africans in the leadership of President Jacob Zuma and his executive.
Statement issued by the Office of the ANC Chief Whip, 29 February 2016
