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Helen Zille

CAPE TOWN. – A small group of African National Congress caucus members and supporters picketed outside the Western Cape legislature yesterday to call for the removal of Helen Zille as premier.

Former Democratic Alliance leader Zille has faced a public lashing this week following her apology on Tuesday for tweets she made praising some aspects of colonialism back in March.

She has stepped down from all positions in the DA as censure, but will remain in her government position as premier until the end of her term in 2019. The ANC Western Cape caucus on Thursday said the punishment was not enough. “The statement by Zille was an extremely racist one. Her motivation was worse:

That these buildings, these cars would not be here if we weren’t colonised,” acting provincial chairperson Khaya Magaxa said outside the legislature. “That’s an extreme insult to our people. It’s an insult to the same people who voted DA in this province.”

He said people were wasting their vote on a party that had remained, in effect, a “racist party” that wants to affirm the position of oppressors. ANC provincial secretary general Faiez Jacob said Zille’s tweets had harmed the people she governed, not just her party. “We may be few, but we have a clear message for Premier Zille: She does not enjoy the support of our people,” Jacobs said.

Colonialism had created a genocide of the ancestors of many people in the Western Cape – the Khoi and the San – he said. “As Muslims, our religion was banned and our culture not allowed to flourish. Slavery brought hardship to our people. Our land was taken away from our people. “Is that ‘not all that bad?’” he asked rhetorically.

Magaxa called again for the legislature to hold a debate on a motion of no confidence in Zille, saying she had lost the support of both her party and the people. – News24.