Zelda sparks race row with Zuma tweets

Nelson Mandela's former personal assistant Zelda la Grange was trending on social media yesterday afternoon after she lashed out at President Jacob Zuma on Twitter.

Her comments on Zuma and white South Africans erupted into a Twitter storm.

She changed her name on her Twitter profile, calling herself Zelda van Riebeeck.

La Grange, in a brief interview with the Sunday Times, said her criticism of Zuma was triggered by comments he made about Jan van Riebeeck - the Dutch colonial official who established a settlement at the Cape in 1652 - last Friday during an ANC rally.

La Grange started off her tweets yesterday with: ''I'm SICK of Jacob Zuma's constant go at whites every few months. Why can't we co-exist without it having to be at the expense of one another?"

Zuma had said: "All the trouble began in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck landed in the Cape."

La Grange tweeted that white investors should stop enriching BEE partners. "Next time a white business man from the US or Europe brings investment with job opportunity they must be told they are not wanted in SA," she wrote.

In July last year, La Grange published her book Good Morning, Mr. Mandela, about her close working relationship with the late president.

La Grange, who is presently in the UK, told the Sunday Times she was tired of being blamed for the misfortunes of South Africa because she is white.

''The news headline on an Emirates flight that South African debt is at its worse (sic) in 20 years, then reading what's happened in the last week ... it's always blamed on race."

La Grange said she had been overwhelmed by the resignation this week of veteran anti-apartheid journalist Max du Preez as a columnist for the Independent newspaper group, and with the ANC labelling him a racist.

In his column on December 30, titled ''Zuma - SA's one-man wrecking ball", Du Preez wrote that the SA Revenue Service (Sars) and the Hawks were the ''latest victims" of Zuma's ''demolition of democracy".

The presidency in a statement said it was ''alarmed" by the personal attack on the president and Du Preez announced his decision to quit after the group apologised for the column.

''Max du Preez being called a racist because he criticised the government. What's going on?" she asked.

She initially said her critics on Twitter who labelled her a racist were ''free to speak their minds". But by last night she issued a written apology to all South Africans who were offended by her tweets.

"There is no 'but' when hurting people who have nothing to do with your frustration. I am sorry," she wrote.

"Colonisation was a terrible thing that happened to our country, but I cannot erase or change it. I apologise for glamorising it, but there are times when I feel it is regarded as the only wrong thing to have happened to this country. Yet we have a system that still wrongs people every day ... We are all frustrated and angry about the state of affairs for different reasons. But that frustration is not limited to race or culture."

How La Grange trended on Twitter:

"I don't know why you are making such noise. I speak out when Steve Hofmeyr is being racist and will do so if anyone blames race for anything"

''You can call me names as much as you want."

"Oh wait. Whites' tax money is good enough for Nkandla but then you constantly have to be brutalized"

"If I was a white investor I would more or less leave now. It's very clear from Jacob Zuma whites are not wanted"

"De Klerk surrendered power or he could have stayed in power like the other anarchists and corrupt heads of state around us"

"Makes white people really feel welcome in SA. I think I'm calling Jan today to ask him what de hell he was thinking sailing to Africa"

How Black Twitter responded

Graça Machel's daughter JosinaZ Machel: '"It totally goes against the need to coexist, respect each other and build ONE nation"

EFF's leading tweeting man Sentletse: "We must allow people space to have their meltdown in peace. It's very therapeutic"

Actress Florence Masebe: "Hang on ... You guys really bought that book? With your hard earned black money?"

Home affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete: "When the CPT club has reached its black quota limit and you have to call your boy to come out so that you can swap"

ANC Youth League member Shaka Sisulu: "Guts, Who broke Zelda?"

 - Compiled by Gabi Mbele