Breytenbach takes on Zille in DA hearing on colonial tweets
IT will be Helen Zille versus top prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach when the Western Cape premier appears before the party’s disciplinary committee for her colonialism tweets.
Breytenbach, who quit the National Prosecuting Authority three years ago to become a DA MP and now heads the party’s federal legal commission, said yesterday that she would handle the prosecution.
“I decided to be the prosecutor in the Helen Zille case. The panel to hear the case will therefore be appointed by the deputy chairman of the federal legal commission, Werner Horn,” Breytenbach said.
Yesterday, Horn said he had not yet decided who would serve on the panel, or when the hearing would take place.
The decision to charge Zille was taken after some of her staunch supporters failed to enforce a process of mediation at the party’s federal executive meeting, party insiders said.
DA sources revealed that last Sunday’s meeting was recorded, for the first time in 15 years, to prevent the possibility of Zille challenging the fairness of the process.
The Sunday Times understands that Zille, who ordinarily is a co-opted member of the executive, was not invited.
DA insiders say party leader Mmusi Maimane “spoke strongly” at the meeting.
It is understood that leaders from the Eastern Cape and Gauteng as well as DA national spokeswoman Phumzile van Damme spoke against Zille’s tweets.
However, she found support from DA Women’s Network leader Denise Robinson, a staunch Zille ally.
Van Damme said that because the meeting was closed, she could not comment on what had happened.
Despite proposals to get the executive to solve the problems with Zille through mediation, the committee decided to charge her on three counts:
Publicly opposes the DA’s principles;
Deliberately acts in a way which impacts negatively on the image or performance of the DA; and
Brings the good name of the party into disrepute or harms its interests.
Maimane had earlier indicated that the disciplinary hearing would not be confined to Zille’s tweets, but also to her subsequent conduct, which included articles she wrote and a speech she made on the supposed benefits of colonialism.