Lindiwe Mazibuko slams 'tone deaf' DA leadership

Former DA MP and parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko says she does not hate the party but criticised its leadership, saying it is “tone deaf, power drunk and ignorant”. 

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) reportedly classified 69 ballots cast in the Tshwane council speaker election this week as “spoilt” and invalid after councillors marked them incorrectly.

It was alleged the DA's councillors were assigned a number (1-69) and instructed by the party to vote using that number for the party agent to be able to identify if any caucus member did not vote according to the mandate given. The DA said it would lodge a formal objection to the outcome of the election.

Mazibuko weighed in on the incident, when she was accused of being a “DA hater”.

“I do not hate the DA. I helped build that organisation, how can I hate it? What I loathe is the tone deaf, power drunk, ignorant hubris of current leadership. [They are] destroying what good people worked relentlessly under unreal circumstances to build — at the very moment it is most needed,” she said.

Her remarks came as DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia found himself in a war of words with analyst Nick Hedley on the state of the party's leadership.

Hedley predicted the DA would “never break out of its 20-25% support range” with leaders Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen in charge.

“The DA’s national leadership team claims to have stabilised support after ejecting Mmusi Maimane [the first black leader] in 2019. But it got 1.1-million fewer votes in 2021 with [DA leader John] Steenhuisen and Helen Zille in charge. People stayed at home rather than vote ANC or DA.  

“Given South Africa's horrific past, the majority will never back a white lady who argues colonialism wasn’t all bad and 'wokeness' is our biggest problem. Nor for a Steenhuisen,” Hedley said. 

Cachalia responded by saying: “I’d stick to applauding the stance of an autistic 20-year-old, if I were you.” 

His comments attracted backlash, with some people saying it was offensive to people living with autism. He has since deleted the post and apologised.

“To be clear, I meant no insult of autism. If it was taken as such — I apologise, as evinced by my deletion of my initial tweet. My criticism was directed at Nick Hedley who I suggested should stick to his knitting instead of making gratuitous insults aimed at Helen Zille. 

“If you read correctly, my reply to Nick Hedley's gratuitous attack on Helen Zille and the DA most certainly did not weaponise against autism. As I said, climate change and autism are complex issues, but I will delete the tweet given wilful misunderstanding. I will delete it.” 

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