South African veteran politician accused of racism again
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – Veteran South African political leader Helen Zille has once again been accused of racism over a social media post addressing the Black Lives Matter movement.
The former leader of the official opposition Democratic Alliance addressed the carnage in northern Mozambique to discredit the #BlackLivesMatter movement in a Facebook post.
She said she received videos of the ISIS-linked insurgent attacks in Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique “which are so totally and utterly gruesome, that I can honestly say I have never seen anything so horrific”.
’’Now here is a dead serious question: Where is #BlackLivesMatter? Or do they only deal with deaths that they can make political capital out of, in decrying ’whiteness’? #BlackLivesMatter is too busy scouring the internet looking for unintentional micro aggression than actually trying to stop the most brutal violence committed against black people,” she wrote.
Senior ANC official Muhammad Sayed has accused Zille of grandstanding in defence of white privilege.
“Black lives do matter, that’s why the SADC troika met last week, in Mozambique, to discuss this serious issue. Black lives do matter, that’s why attention is being paid by our government leaders. Zille should stop being sensationalist,” he said.
In 2017, after a trip to Singapore and Japan, Zille commented on Twitter that the legacy of colonialism was not all bad because it had left a legacy of infrastructure and institutions, which South Africa could build upon.
The consequent outrage led to internal disciplinary hearings. Zille was also investigated for her comments about the legacy of colonialism by the Human Rights Commission for "a potential violation of human dignity".
And Zille last year commented on Twitter that "There are more racist laws today than there were under apartheid".
The Federal Legal Commission of her own party has since launched an investigation into her comments.
Zille is a former journalist who exposed the cover-up around the death of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko in the 1970s. The former Cape Town mayor was selected as World Mayor of the Year in 2008.
-0- PANA CU/AR 13April2021
