Mmusi Maimane – praag.org

Anti-white Zille says Verwoerd was evil and clever

It seems that outgoing Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, Hellen Zille will be a puppet-master to the newly-elected black party leader, Mmusi Maimane, since he is indebted to her for her support.

Maimane was elected the new party leader at the DA’s Federal Congress in Port Elizabeth on Sunday.

“In any way the DA leadership wants me to support or help in whatever capacity, I’m there to do it,” Zille said in an exclusive interview with the SABC, adding to speculation that she is still in control.

Zille says she is confident that she has made the right decision to step down as party leader and has insisted she was not pushed into relinquishing her position.

“I spent a long time thinking about this decision. I knew when I was elected I would only stay 10 years at most. I think two five-year terms is fine. But then I was wondering do I go at 8 years or do I wait for that other two years and I spent about six months thinking about it, and about a month ago I thought: ‘Now is the time!'”

Zille has again defended Allister Sparks for his comments on Hendrik Verwoerd during his speech at the DA Federal Congress in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

Zille says Sparks’ comments were taken out of context and that Sparks knew that the white Verwoerd was “evil”.

In Sparks’ defence, Zille said, “We all know he was a passionate supporter of the ANC and in fact, advised Nelson Mandela on communication strategies and other strategies, as an advisor, (and) not as a journalist. He knew and acted in every way to expose the evil of apartheid.”

She adds, “Evil people are not necessarily stupid people. And there is quite a difference in saying someone is intelligent and saying you support them. Some of the most evil people in our history have been some of the most clever and that is what is so frightening. So, he was not in any way paying a tribute to Verwoerd. In fact, he said it in his speech: ‘Apartheid was a crime against humanity.’ And very few people have done as much as Allister Sparks in journalism to expose that crime against humanity as he did.”

Zille hopes that being the puppetmaster to a black face would increase the party’s chances of attracting black votes, something she failed at miserably.

DA gets black leader

Musi Maimane has been elected as the new Democratic Alliance (DA) leader at the 2015 DA Federal Congress held at the Boardwalk Convention Centre in Port Elizabeth on Sunday, as PRAAG predicted.

The DA needs a black leader for black votes. Until now the party relied on coloured votes in the Western Cape mostly. Coloured leaders do not appeal to blacks.

The Federal Chairperson is Athol Trollip, a supporter of Maimane.

The three Deputy Federal Chairperson positions went to Ivan Meyer, Refiloe Ntsekhe and Desiree van der Walt. Chairperson of the Federal Council is James Selfe, whose position went unopposed.

The position of Deputy Chairperson of the Federal Council went to Thomas Walters and Chairperson of the Federal Finance Committee is Alf Lees.

A total of 21 nominations were received for the seven positions available. According to Presiding Officer for the Congress, Penny Tainton, of the 1,379 potential voting delegates, 1,283 people cast their vote with a total percentage poll of 93% on Sunday.

DA battle about racial identity

Political Analyst Ebrahim Fakir says sixth Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Congress is going to be a battle for the identity and leadership of the party.

The DA is all set to hold its sixth federal congress this weekend in Port Elizabeth. The congress is the highest decision-making body of the party.

This weekend the congress will elect a new federal leadership and make amendments to the party’s Constitution.

The coloured Wilmot James and black Mmusi Maimane are the frontrunners for the position of federal leader.

Speaking on AM Live, Fakir says the DA is grappling with issues of identity. He says identity matters because it shapes what the party wants to achieve.

Fakir says there is likely to be a contestation between two people for leadership who do not have a long pedigree in the party.

Coloureds vote for the DA in the Western Cape, but the party is struggling to win black votes in Gauteng.

Meanwhile, Maimane’s white wife, Natalie Thomas, has emerged as the power behind the throne, saying the mixed couple are the only ones able to “contribute” to South Africa.

She also tweeted on behalf of her husband about recent sex-ring allegations.

Maimane’s wife stands firm amid DA sex scandal rumours

The wife of DA parliamentary leader, Mmusi Maimane has taken to social media to support her husband amid rumours of a sex scandal within the party.

In a tweet from her account, she called her husband “the real deal”.

An e-mail penned under the name “Tom Jeffries” has been sent allegedly by a woman who says she is one of several colleagues used by men in the DA as “playthings”.

The email, according to its writer, is a warning to delegates to not put the wrong people in leadership.

“I am one such person and despite raising my concerns I was brushed aside by a system that protects men that use their power to get away with the worst misogyny against women,” it reads, before accusing a host of prominent DA MPs and office bearers of extra-marital affairs.

Mmusi Maimane, his contender, James Wilmot as well Athol Trollip, who is running for federal chairmanship, on Saturday collectively rejected allegations of a culture of crude sexual harassment within the party.

DA spokesman says ANC much better than ‘apartheid’

EFF leader Julius Malema was wrong to say that the ANC-led government is worse than the apartheid government, DA spokesman Mmusi Maimane said on Monday.

“You may have heard Julius Malema saying over the weekend that the ANC is worse than apartheid. It is wrong to create this impression among South Africans,” he said in a speech prepared for delivery.

“Apartheid was worse because it was a system of entrenched racism. Apartheid was worse because we couldn’t vote out apartheid. In fact, we couldn’t vote at all.”

The Economic Freedom Fighters’ leader said at the rally in Lethabong near Rustenburg, North West, on Saturday that black people would never own land under the African National Congress.

“Our struggle is about land. [Former president Nelson] Mandela was arrested for demanding land,” Malema said.

Maimane said “the sacrifice that so many made for our freedom” had to be remembered.

“Like so many others where I grew up, I used to be an ANC supporter. I believed that the ANC could bring about a better life for me and my family,” he said.

“Since then I have seen how that once proud movement has lost its way under the current leadership.”

He said apartheid was forced on the people against their will, while the ANC was “not compulsory”.

“The ANC is a political party in a democracy. We can vote for another party if we feel let down by the one in power.” – Sapa

ANC: Racial tension in DA

The DA’s two Gauteng premier candidates indicated racial tension within the party, the ANC in the province said on Wednesday.

“The fact that the Democratic Alliance has two premier candidates is a distinctly inauspicious sign that the party is in a state of mess, confusion and leadership squabbles,” African National Congress Gauteng chairman Dumisa Ntuli claimed.

He was responding to the news that the Democratic Alliance’s Gauteng leader Jack Bloom and party spokesman Mmusi Maimane would vie for selection as the party’s preferred candidate for premier.

“It is a clear indication that there are deeper fights taking place between blacks and whites because of greed, factional battles and rupture caused [by] lack of policies and identity. We know that the DA is a white party and always want to hides behind a façade of a black face.”

Maimane dismissed Ntuli’s comments as political rhetoric aimed at diverting public attention from the ANC’s failings.

“They have no delivery record and are losing credibility. All they want to argue is race,” he said.

Attempts to portray the DA as a white party contained the implication that the ANC was therefore a black party, Maimane said.

The focus on race issues showed the ANC had departed from the non-racial principles of its former president Albert Luthuli, he said. – Sapa

DA says Pieter Mulder needs ‘history lesson’ on land

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder needs to be reminded about the “real history” of South Africa, the DA said on Thursday.

“Instead of denying our history, as Mr Mulder does, we must do everything we can to ensure that people have access to land. We have to put right the wrongs of the past,” Democratic Alliance national spokesman Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.

“We cannot simply wish it away. Redress is a democratic imperative. But we have to remedy the sins of apartheid in a way that is sustainable so that all South Africans may benefit from the richness of our soil.”

On Wednesday, Mulder suggested in Parliament that black “Bantu-speaking” people had no historical claim to 40 percent of the country.

“Africans in particular never in the past lived in the whole of South Africa,” he said during debate in the National Assembly on last week’s state-of-the-nation address.

Maimane said there was plenty of land available for land reform, and South Africa needed a land reform programme which was fair and economically viable and the answer was not to do away with the willing-seller, willing-buyer model.

“The solution is an efficient department of rural development that can process claims quickly and can facilitate the efficient and fair distribution of land.

“If we can get that right there will be no need for anybody — whether it is Julius Malema or Pieter Mulder — to use the emotive issue of land to pander to their own narrow constituencies,” said Maimane.

Mulder’s remarks on Wednesday provoked an angry buzz from ruling party benches, which rose in pitch when he explained: “There is sufficient proof that there were no Bantu-speaking people in the Western Cape and north western Cape.”

These areas formed 40 percent of South Africa’s land surface, he told MPs.

Mulder serves in President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet as deputy agriculture minister.

In his state-of-the-nation address, Zuma said the willing-buyer willing-seller option had “not been the best way to address” land redistribution.

Mulder said the question of land ownership was an emotional issue that had caused many wars. He took issue with land ownership figures cited by Zuma in his address.

“The president quotes in his address the department of rural development’s figures on land reform.

“According to [these], white people possessed 87 percent of the land, and the government had reached only eight percent of its 30 percent [land reform] target. I seriously differ from these figures.

“How does the department calculate the eight percent? There isn’t a completed land audit against which we could correlate these facts.”

The Development Bank of SA calculated in 2001 that 44 percent of the country’s land belonged to whites, 20 percent to blacks, nine percent to brown people and one percent to Asians.

“The way in which the department has calculated the 30 percent and eight percent figures creates the impression that they are setting themselves up to fail.”

Mulder said he seriously differed with the claim that white people had stolen land.

Referring to Zuma’s remarks on the willing-buyer, willing-seller option, he said that, in plain language, this meant the government now believed in the nationalisation of agricultural land. However, anyone who had dealt with land reform knew the problem was not with the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle.

Mulder said he hoped there would come a time when both white and black commercial farmers did not have to look for opportunities elsewhere in Africa.