Zille says it was media who tipped her off on Maimane’s resignation

Acting leader of the Democratic Alliance and now its federal council chairperson Helen Zille claims nine-tenths of the federal council members were blindsided by Mmusi Maimane and Athol Trollip’s resignations last week during a federal council meeting.

Speaking at the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday, Zille detailed the moments she found out that Maimane and Trollip would resign.

It was when she was contacted by both the media and her son, while she chaired the federal council meeting, that she realised that something was going on.

“I started getting Whatsapp messages asking about Mmusi’s resignation. I then get a WhatsApp message from my son who said ‘I’m really sorry it’s playing out this way’. I said I’m sitting next to him and things are going well. He said ‘well people will blame you for Maimane’s resignation’.”

After stopping the meeting to try find more information on the speculations, she said Maimane and Trollip informed the federal council of their intent to resign at a lunchtime press conference.

Maimane and Trollip announced their resignation as leaders in the party following Zille’s appointment as the party’s federal chairperson.

Maimane’s resignation ended weeks of speculation about his political future as he claimed he could no longer stay in office due to the coordinated attempt to undermine his leadership.

While Maimane claims he could no longer transform the DA, Zille at the press club said the DA could never prove that it was not a white party in the ANC’s book, “because its the only argument they’ve got.”

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