Maimane ‘rented his face to murderous Zionists’ – Vavi

Former Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has come out to ridicule DA leader Mmusi Maimane for using the South African flag during his recent visit to Israel.

Vavi says he doesn’t mind Maimane “renting his face to the murderous Zionists, but using SA flag is deeply offensive”, wrote Vavi on Twitter.

The Palestine Embassy in South Africa has said that the DA had not informed the embassy of any intention to visit Palestine.

They also said no meetings had been arranged with members of the Palestinian Authority, as the DA has claimed. This after Maimane visited Israel and Palestine last week.

The party responded to the criticism from the Palestinian embassy by releasing a paper trail of exchanges with the Palestinian Authority presidency, and denying claims that Maimane had been shunned by local officials.

DA spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said the party had dealt directly with the office of President Mahmoud Abbas in setting up a meeting between Abbas and Maimane.

“The DA had a confirmed meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mr Mahmoud Abbas, and had informed South Africa’s Embassy in Ramallah of the meeting, and had invited South Africa’s ambassador to join the meeting. This is incontrovertible,” she said.

According to the DA, the meeting was cancelled because of a scheduling conflict on Mahmoud’s side and Van Damme said the party was not aware of any directive to Palestinian officials not to meet with Maimane.

“However, it is revealing that the embassy’s statement says that there was an instruction issued not to meet with the DA. We will certainly be following up with them to ascertain exactly who issued this instruction, as it was not conveyed to us at any point,” she said.

Van Damme also tweeted that “where SA’s people travel cannot he dictated by ANC foreign policy. We have a constitutionally protected right to freedom of movement, y’see”.