Trouble brewing in the DA’s ranks

THE disciplinary hearing scheduled for Monday against Bongani Botha, the former DA deputy chairman of Ward 37 in Nyanga, was postponed pending further investigations.

Botha told Weekend Argus yesterday he had already prepared for the hearing when he received an e-mail from the DA provincial office informing him of the postponement.

“The e- mail from HanMarie Marshall-van Zyl, the party’s provincial managing director, just said they had set up an investigating team and we should be in touch with them to set a date for them to investigate,” explained Botha.

This is following a call by MEC for Education Debbie Schäfer, in her constituency head of Nyanga and Gugulethu, to have Botha disciplined following a dispute over racial utterances Schäfer allegedly directed at Botha ahead of a ward meeting a few weeks ago.

According to Botha, Schäfer said: “I do not like black people like you who are gate-keepers.” This followed a problem which arose, relating to there being three differing lists of members eligible to vote at the meeting, turning up.

In a report in the Weekend Argus last week, Botha said not only were there three different lists, there were 30 members who did not appear on any of the lists. He said members felt the meeting was not procedurally constituted and should be postponed but Schäfer refused.

Schäfer dismissed Botha’s claims as “blatant lies” and further denied any wrongdoing to the Weekend Argus, saying Botha was a “troublemaker”. Botha told Weekend Argus he was disappointed with how the party handled the matter.

“We were the first to lay a charge of racism against Schäfer but we were ignored. When she laid a charge of ill-discipline against me, it was only then that they started to take action. That to me says we, as black people in the party, are undermined and nothing we say is valid,” Botha said.