Sizwe Dhlomo gives Helen Zille a piece of his mind about colonialism

Radio and TV personality Sizwe Dhlomo got into a spicy debate with Helen Zille on Twitter recently over her infamous comments about colonialism.

In January last year Zille was lambasted for her belief that colonialism had some positive effects. 

The comments sparked widespread outrage and was the subject of a Human Rights Commission investigation. 

Now, more than a year later, Sizwe had a lot to get off his chest about the topic and called Zille into his office for a chat. 

It all started when Sizwe stumbled upon a tweet about the slave trade in America, and he tagged Zille on it. 

Zille said that she agreed that was nothing positive about the slave trade. 

"I agree, there was absolutely nothing positive about slavery or the slave trade. If you read the transformed SA history textbook (issued in democratic SA) you will see the acknowledgement that, despite its many evils, colonialism helped end slavery in parts of Africa." 

Zille hit back at Sizwe, saying that there was a difference between colonialism and aspects of its legacy.

"You need to distinguish between them. Historical events can be inherently evil, but aspects of their legacy can turn out to be positive, although the positive does NOT cancel out the negative." 

It was then that Sizwe went in hard. 

"You, like it or not are a beneficiary of colonialism albeit indirectly. Your biases, whether you’re aware of them or not, make it unlikely for you to be able to accurately weigh up the negatives of colonialism versus these positives you speak of." 

Sizwe then closed his argument with a bang, saying that to defend colonialism was a complete disrespect to the millions of lives that were lost.  

"Most importantly Helen, it shows a lack of remorse. It tells us that if you could go back in time, you’d still choose the colonialism route because it yielded some results that you value. It shows a deficit in morals.

In the end Zille said she agreed with Sizwe and they called it a day.