'The DA is a joke': Pearl Thusi lambastes party for its views on statues of apartheid-era figures

Actress and TV personality Pearl Thusi has expressed dismay at the DA's views about moving statues and monuments of past oppressors.

This week, the DA condemned a decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove statues honouring colonial and apartheid-era figures from public spaces and relocating them to “theme parks” across the country.

DA MP Veronica van Dyk said the party intends to oppose the decision and would be writing to the chairperson of parliament's portfolio committee on sports, arts, and culture.

“This move by the ANC government essentially aims to create sanitised public spaces reflecting a government-approved history that pays tribute to government-approved heroes,” said Van Dyk.

“Removing statues, symbols and monuments that do not form part of this narrative to 'theme parks' allows the ANC government to control how these statues are presented in the historical narrative to future generations. It silences the voices of the people for whom these statues, and the stories they tell, hold meaning, and denies them space in the new South Africa.”

It is unclear when Ramaphosa planned for the statues and monuments to be removed and relocated.

The DA's view rubbed the Queen Sono actress up the wrong way. In a series of tweets, Pearl took shots at the party.

In a now-deleted tweet, Pearl also took a subtle swipe at the DA's national spokesperson Solly Malatsi.

Malatsi was quoted by the party as saying that “policy battles in the DA are not based on black vs white”.

Pearl asked if Malatsi was also against the moving of the old statues and monuments.

“So the DA finds a black front-liner every time to try to scam us. Solly Malatsi unjani bhuti? So Nawe awufuni ama-statue asuswe vele (So, are you also against the moving of the statues)?" asked Pearl.

In another tweet, she asked former DA leader Mmusi Maimane how he survived in the party.

“Y’all spreading that [Donald] Trump like fear and rhetoric is really low. Mmusi Maimane how did you survive here?”

Concluding her rant, Pearl labelled the DA a “joke”, saying she was annoyed with herself for landing on its Twitter page.