Maimane shows good leadership

I AM one of the many who could not believe that we can have someone in 2017 prepared to romanticise about the “positive” legacy of colonialism.

Helen Zille’s tweets were offensive and distasteful. What made it worse was her constant opposition to Mmusi Maimane trying to solve the problem.

Having lost all hope of seeing her retract her comments, I was happy to see Maimane decisively bring her before the TV cameras to apologise unreservedly for her tweets.

Maimane appeared genuinely hurt and upset by the offensive tweets. I was impressed by his assertion that the debate on the legacy of apartheid had no place in contemporary South Africa or the painful past from which we are all trying to heal.

Maimane made it clear our country is in crisis mode. He is right. The government has been hijacked by a corrupt mafia, we have a president who has breached our constitution, and young South Africans remain jobless. The debate we should be having is how we should solve this crisis.

We simply cannot be distracted from the present danger of rescuing the country from the abyss by engaging in fruitless debates about the “glory” of our painful past.

In my view, Mmusi Maimane has shown leadership with a decisiveness that is, unfortunately, lacking in the ANC and national government. Vuyo Sixishe Springs, Ekhuruleni