South African white-dominated political party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has suspended controversial MP Renaldo Gouws for his racist rant, pending a disciplinary hearing.
This comes hardly a day after the party’s leader John Steenhuisen on Wednesday, 19 June defended Gouws, saying he made the comments 16 years ago when he was young and irresponsible.
In a statement issued this Thursday, 20 June, the DA said Gouws had been suspended with immediate effect and now faces disciplinary charges before the Party’s Federal Legal Commission. It said:
The DA has established that the video, in which Renaldo Gouws uses execrable language, is in fact genuine and not a fake as initially suspected.
The DA Federal Executive has therefore suspended Mr Gouws with immediate effect while he faces disciplinary charges before the Party’s Federal Legal Commission.
In a video clip, which was deleted but archived in 2012, a man who looks like a young Gouws can be heard using the K-word and N-word several times.
Gouws has been an MP since 15 June 2024.
Commenting on the latest development, Melusi Sime said Gouws “is the embodiment of the values of” the DA. He wrote on X:
They saving face… Mr Gouws is the embodiment of the values of that political party. It might be easy to ‘white’ wash who they are through the lopsided narrative of ‘good governance’ where they govern, but many people know who they are and whose interests they serve.
The DA is now part of South Africa’s coalition government which includes five other parties, that is, African National Congress (ANC), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), GOOD Party, Patriotic Alliance (PA), and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).
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