Renaldo Gouws ‘will be removed as an MP if K word video is true’ – Zille

New Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Renaldo Gouws may be booted out as a member of Parliament if the video of him hurling offensive remarks calling for the killing of black people is true.

This is according to DA federal chairperson Helen Zille.

Gouws is in hot water again after a new video showing a seemingly the angry DA MP referring to black South Africans by the K word which was used during apartheid.

Watch Renaldo Gouws responding to the racist video

“Alright, so there’s a couple of things I want to say, kill the f**king  k***ers. Kill all the f***ing n***ers. That all I’ve got to say. Kill the f***ing  k***ers, kill all the f***ing n***ers.”

Gouws trended on social media Monday after a video of the DA MP emerged of him going on a rant about how white South Africans are subjected to reverse apartheid.

Job on the line

Zille told News24 that she was made aware of the video.

“I spoke to him [Gouws] and he unequivocally denies making such offensive remarks. [The] initial report from him is that the video is fake, but we are doing our own due diligence to authenticate the video. We have experts looking at it,” Zille said.

“If the video is found to be true, it’s over for him. He will be removed as an MP. Such language is unjustifiable and unacceptable. I don’t see how such offensive language can be justified.”

ALSO READ: ‘I’m not racist,’ says DA MP Renaldo Gouws as 35,000 people sign petition for his removal

Apology

Gouws apologised and said claims of him being racist were false, and that he has addressed the video clip before.

“A snippet of a video that I posted 16 years ago (back in 2009) when I was young and still a student has been recycled and posted on social media over the last few days,” said Gouws.

“I addressed this snippet in 2016 and again in 2020 when approached by the media when it was posted on social media. (Articles on this can be Googled). This was at the time when then President Zuma and then Youth Leader, Malema were singing songs about killing people based on their race.”

Gouws has denied allegations of being racist.

“I refute any claims of racism or being a racist. I can, however, see how my message was distorted in the way it was delivered by me and I take full responsibility for the actions of my younger and immature self. For that, I apologise unreservedly,” Gouws said.

At least 35,000 South Africans have signed a petition calling for his removal from Parliament, accusing him of being racist.

Kill the boer

Last month, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed, with costs, AfriForum’s appeal against the court ruling that the EFF singing the “kill the boer” song was not hate speech.

The SCA ruling emanates from a judgment by the Equality Court in Johannesburg in August 2020 where Judge Edwin Molahlehi ordered that the “kill the boer” song does not constitute hate speech after AfriForum’s witnesses and its deputy CEO Ernst Roets failed to link the song to an allegation that it incited a genocide of white farmers.

The court held that what EFF leader Julius Malema was doing was no more than exercising his right to freedom of expression.

Additional reporting by Vhahangwele Nemakonde

ALSO READ: SCA dismisses AfriForum’s appeal against ‘kill the boer’ song