ANC harps on Zille's howler

KwaZ-Natal finance MEC and ANC veteran Belinda Scott says that she is ashamed to be white after the utterances on colonialism by Western Cape premier Helen Zille.

"The utterances by some of my fellow white compatriots make me ashamed," she said in Woodlands, near Pietermaritzburg.

The ANC brought out its big guns, which included NEC member Bheki Cele, in a final push yesterday to snatch Msunduzi municipality's key, vacant ward 32 from the DA.

• Maimane 'angry, offended' by Zille colonialism tweetDA leader Mmusi Maimane has revealed how angry he became when he read Western Cape premier Helen Zille's tweets in defence of colonialism.

The event, billed as a Human Rights Day commemoration, was planned at the last minute and came just 24 hours after DA leader Mmusi Maimane visited the same area on Monday.

The ruling party also roped in education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwane, who is also the ANC's regional chairman in Pietermaritzburg, and social development MEC Weziwe Thusi.

DA councillor Clive Lotz defected to the ANC three months ago, leaving the ward vacant.

The ANC used Zille's tweets to vilify the DA as a party for whites with no interest in the lives of poor people, except for using them as voting fodder.

• Helen Zille and the myth of the White SaviourWestern Cape premier’s Twitter defence of colonialism has roots in the SA liberal tradition based on notions of white superiority, writes Panashe Chigumadzi

Scott and Cele led the assault.

"Today I want to speak from the heart. I have been walking today in this ward. I hang my head in shame that the people in this ward support people like Helen Zille, a woman who supports colonialism.

"Many of you young people, you must listen to your mothers, fathers and your grandparents, and get them to tell you what colonialism means," she said.

"It means killing African people, it means treating Africans like animals, it means to silence your voice. A leader of the DA this week said what is wrong with colonialism. But she's not the only one."

• Helen Zille’s (b) adventures in Twitter landHelen Zille’s Twitter mishaps have caused the official opposition some major red-facery over the years.

She singled out DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard, who previously praised PW Botha's government and the apartheid police in a social media post.

Cele also fired a broadside at the Western Cape premier.

"Zille said all black people in the Western Cape are refugees, that's why they are curtailing school intake so that we go back where we come from. But last week Zille outdid herself. She said colonialism was too nice, but she forgot they marginalised us and that's why we still bask in the sun like spiders and lizards," he said.

Cele said the government was doing its best to resolve the land issue and added it would expropriate the land of owners who lived abroad. He also said it was about time that people had title deeds.

• Zille takes it a tweet too farWestern Cape premier Helen Zille dodged questions yesterday about her Twitter comments that appeared to praise colonialism.

"Having a title deed empowers you, it's your human right. It even gives you the right to bargain with a bank," he said.

Poor families were given groceries that included maize meal, potatoes, braai packs and cooking oil, with Thusi saying she was not afraid to give out food.

"I tell them in parliament we do not buy people through food parcels. We do what people want and they want parcels," she said.

The DA is fielding Shawn Adkin in the ward. The ANC's Merle Williams and the IFP's Sakhile Makhathini will contest him.