Zille says Maimane misunderstood what was going on with her suspension

In an interview on Sunday morning with eNCA, Western Cape premier Helen Zille has said that she refuses to apologise for something she’s not guilty of and that her suspension was premature.

She said that she “got correspondence from James Selfe, the chairman of the Federal Executive [FedEx], which said I was given till the 6th of June to provide reasons to the FedEx why I should not be suspended”.

“And then Mmusi Maimane went into a press conference and announced that I had been suspended. And so there was a clear difference between those two positions. I read Mmusi Maimane’s statement online and then realised that he thought the suspension was of immediate effect.

“I immediately then went to the DA’s constitution, clause 3.6.3, which shows that that position is unconstitutional.”

She expressed her unhappiness at the fact that her apology on Twitter over her colonialism tweets had not been seen as good enough.

“You can go back and look at my timeline. I apologised unreservedly on the very morning of the 16th of March and I repeated that in parliament. So the bottom line is that I have apologised twice. What I don’t want to do, and what I don’t think I have to do is take the exact wording that Mr Maimane wants me to take and to issue, which would admit guilt on something I don’t believe I’m guilty of.

“I have never defended colonialism; I have never justified colonialism. Indeed, I have always said that colonialism was absolutely diabolical. In its legacy, there are many negative things, but not only negative things. That’s all I have said, and in my apology I am not going to admit guilt to infringements I don’t believe I have committed.

“And if the DA requires me to do that before a hearing, then I think that’s completely wrong and that doesn’t require me to apologise. It requires me to go much much further.”

She said admitting guilt would totally “undermine the rule of law, and they can’t expect that of me”.

Earlier on Saturday, Maimane announced Zille had been suspended from all DA-related activities pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing.

Briefing the media following the DA’s two-day FedEx meeting in Johannesburg, Maimane said he had been working to resolve this matter using all available means.

“It has become quite evident that Helen Zille and I hold fundamentally different attitudes about the mission the Democratic Alliance needs to accomplish in 2019, and the goals and priorities that flow from this.

“Ms Zille’s social media commentary and public utterances in connection with colonialism undermine our reconciliation project. There is no question that Ms Zille’s original tweets and subsequent justifications have damaged our standing in the public mind.

“We live in a fragile democracy which means our public representatives must, at all times, be sensitive to the legitimate anger that people still feel about our past and its legacy,” he said.

As DA leader, it was up to him to rebuild public trust. In this regard, he had asked Zille to tender an unreserved apology to both South Africa and the DA for the damage she had done.

“Unfortunately, she declined. In this period, Ms Zille has continued to damage the party with various pieces of communication that seek to undermine what we are trying to achieve. Accordingly, [the] federal executive has resolved Ms Zille be suspended from all party-related activities until such time as her disciplinary hearing is concluded. A notice of suspension will be served on Ms Zille in this regard. This has not been an easy decision. But, as the leader, I must do what is right for the party and South Africa,” Maimane said.

The DA moved quickly to clarify the issue in a further statement, confirming that Zille still had until June 6 to provide reasons why she should not be suspended.