DA tried to crush me, force me out says Zille

She likens the party to a wild animal that turns on its owner.

Hellen Zille at a Workers’ Day celebration on the Midvaal near Meyerton, South Africa on May 1, 2012. (Photo by Gallo Images / Foto24 / Lucky Maibi)

In what many have called “an explosive column“, former Western Cape premier Helen Zille has declared that the Democratic Alliance (DA) had tried to “crush” her and force her out of the party following the backlash over her tweets about colonialism and what she perceived to be its impact on the continent.

Around March 2016, the former DA leader made reference to the apparently positive legacy of colonialism to “our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water”, among other things.

Despite the scathing response she received on Twitter, Zille continued to justify her view, making further reference to “specialised health care and medication”, which she said would not have been possible without the “colonial influence”.

She later apologised “unreservedly for a tweet that may have come across as a defence of colonialism”.

“For those claiming legacy of colonialism was ONLY negative, think of our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water etc. Would we have had a transition into specialised health care and medication without colonial influence? Just be honest, please,” she tweeted.

“Getting on to an aeroplane now and won’t get on to the wi-fi so that I can cut off those who think EVERY aspect of colonial legacy was bad,” she added.

Zille was back in the spotlight this month after she caused outrage on Twitter after defining “black privilege” as “being able to loot a country and get re-elected”, views she stood by and expanded upon in many other tweets.

In the aforementioned column written for Rapport, Zille also chronicled how the party’s campaign manager Jonathan Moakes resigned from his position citing the fact that he was worried that the DA “was losing a core part of its soul”.

The recent national elections saw the DA fall from 22.23% in 2014 to 20.77% in 2019.

It has been said that some of the white voters that the DA lost were scooped up by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+).

In her article, Zille goes on to list a number of regrets that she has about the direction the DA has taken – namely with what has become of the party following the appointment and upliftment of black leadership.

According to Zille, she believed it would help the party rise above race-based politics but the opposite has since happened.

“I say this not to play the victim. I have only myself to blame. I was the one who saddled and mounted the Tiger I thought we could manage it. When I dismounted it attacked me. What did I expect?” she wrote.

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