The DA appears to have climbed down from its demands as Helen Zille read out what appeared to be a watered-down apology compared with the party's preference.
The Sunday Times has seen the draft apology the DA had prepared for Zille as part of the settlement that saw Zille keep her government job as Western Cape premier.
A careful examination of the final agreement Zille signed - as opposed to the drafts she had refused to sign - reveals the party has bent over backwards to accommodate her in an attempt to avoid a drawn-out battle in court.Sources in the DA this week revealed that Zille had already been considering a peace deal as early as last Friday when she walked into her disciplinary hearing - with her lawyers insisting on her preferred wording of the truce agreement.
The Sunday Times has learnt that DA leader Mmusi Maimane's chief of staff, Geordin Hill-Lewis, and DA head of strategy Gavin Davis acted as emissaries during the negotiations that took place over last weekend.
Maimane could not be reached for comment but Zille rejected suggestions that she had issued a watered-down apology.
"Absolutely not. Anyone who says so is lying. In fact, the final draft was toughened from the original. I don't know who is leaking this fake news."
She declined to respond to further questions, saying: "I have zero interest in discussing the details.
"But you can accept the departure point as fact. It was toughened."
But scrutinising the five paragraphs Zille communicated to the public on Tuesday, the DA climb-down in her favour is unmistakable.
For the first paragraph, the DA leadership earlier proposed: "After a period of reflection, I recognise the profound offence I caused by tweeting with regard to colonialism. I therefore apologise unreservedly to the South African public for this tweet and my subsequent defence of it."
In the final version, the word "profound" falls away and Zille apologises only for the content regarding the "legacy" of colonialism.The word "black" was removed, as well as "the yoke of".
The earlier wording of the penultimate paragraph was: "During this period I have made public utterances that have undermined the leader of the DA and the project he is leading. This was wrong. Mmusi Maimane is the democratically elected DA leader and we must all get behind his leadership."..