‘GogoZille’ back on Twitter – spits fire to clear rumours on DA’s coalition flop

Democratic Alliance (DA) federal chair Helen Zille has found her smartphone and has returned to Twitter with a rant about the party’s coalition flop in the City of Johannesburg and the ousting of former mayor Mpho Phalatse.

Phalatse was removed from office in the City of Johannesburg via a motion of no confidence last week. She was replaced by the African National Congress’ (ANC) Johannesburg regional chair, Dada Morero.

ALSO READ: Mpho Phalatse given 48 hours to apologise for calling the ANC corrupt

Twitter rant

In a series of tweets posted on Friday morning, Zille – who also calls herself GodZille and GogoZille said, “There have been so many untruths told during the past week about what caused the break-up of our coalition in Johannesburg, that the facts have barely surfaced.

“As Mpho Phalatse fights back against the power grab by the ANC looters and their allies, it is important to lay some of these untruths to rest,” Zille said.

“One of the most persistent has been the myth that Mpho pleaded with the DA leadership to give the Speaker position to the IFP, but that this plea was rejected. Nothing like this ever happened. In fact, the opposite is true.”

“When the suggestion first emerged, from ActionSA, that the DA relinquish the speaker position, despite it having been allocated to the DA in a signed coalition agreement, we were prepared to consider it.

“But first we consulted the mayor’s office. We got an unequivocal reply: We must stick to our signed agreement, because having another party take the Speaker position in a 7-party coalition, makes the mayor very vulnerable to the risk of ‘two centres of power’,” Zille added.

‘No call, no plea’

Zille said that at no stage did any member of the national leadership of the DA receive any call or plea from anyone in the DA, to give the position of speaker to the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

“There have been claims that the IFP deserved speaker because they were under-represented in the coalition government, as far as positions were concerned. But if this is the case, it was the result of the IFP’s own choice.

“These are the facts. People seeking to pin the blame, falsely, on the DA for what happened in the past ten days, should not create a tissue of lies to justify their actions,” Zille said.

ALSO READ: Phalatse goes to court to overturn her ousting as Joburg mayor