Former DA MP and party campaign manager for Ekurhuleni in Gauteng, Mike Waters, has lashed out at the party’s national leadership, describing them as “spineless” and “weak” after they ordered that the controversial Phoenix posters be taken down last week.
Waters lambasted the DA leadership in a letter he sent to, among others, party leader John Steenhuisen and federal council chairperson Helen Zille on Saturday, in which he informed them he was quitting as their campaign manager for Ekurhuleni.
The party’s grovelling apology and decision to take down these posters is appalling and a betrayal of the heroes who defended lives during the period of violence and looting.
— Mike Waters
This comes after the DA federal executive last week ordered the removal of posters saying: “The ANC called you racists, the DA calls you heroes,” in reference to vigilante groups in the predominantly Indian area of Phoenix in Durban, accused of killing innocent black people during the looting violence in July.
The DA fedex also ordered KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Dean McPherson to apologise over the matter after a public backlash in which the party was accused of stoking racial divisions.
But this did not sit well Waters and he’s decided to quit over the matter.
“As a founding member of both the Democratic Party and the DA, I am shocked and horrified by the weakness displayed by my party this week over the Phoenix poster matter,” he said in the letter that was leaked to Sunday Times Daily.
“The party’s grovelling apology and decision to take down these posters is appalling and a betrayal of the heroes who defended lives during the period of violence and looting,” the resignation letter read.
Asked to comment on the authenticity of the letter, Waters declined to comment, only saying: “I’m deeply concerned that you have a copy of my resignation letter, as I only emailed it to five people.”
Waters apologised for the inconvenience of the timing of his resignation but explained that “good conscience” would not allow him to continue campaigning for the party.
“I am unable to continue to defend and promote a party that is capable of such spineless treachery and therefore am resigning as regional campaign manager for the DA in Ekurhuleni.
“I cannot in good conscience fight for votes for a party that crumbles in the face of manufactured hysteria about it stating the truth,” he said.
However, Waters told DA leaders he would remain as party member “as it is the only party whose principles and values I support” and remain vocal.
“For as long as I and other muscular liberals can raise our voices above the bleating of the sanctimonious wokerati undermining the direction of the party, I will continue to be a vocal member,” Waters wrote.
His resignation comes after the Sunday Times revealed that, two days after the party released a statement of withdrawal regarding the posters, he was still questioning the DA fedex’s directive on the “Phoenix posters” and confronting colleagues who sit in the national structure.
Waters first slammed the fedex decision in a DA Ekurhuleni WhatsApp, saying it only served to aid the ANC election campaign.
"& now the ANC want to take DA to the HRC [South African Human Rights Commission] because as a political party in SA you are not allowed to criticise the ANC. Well the FedEx assisted the ANC. Gutless FedEx. Every single one of them,” he wrote.
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